A Dream Unbroken
by IAmRoxas
Summary: Naruto Uzumaki, an aspiring boxer who dreams of rising to fame and making his parents proud. Yume Utabi, a rookie guitarist and singer who is running away from her past. Two individuals, who have nothing in common and who have never met, but yet are tied by the inescapable threads of destiny. Join them, as they chase their dreams together.
1. Foreword

Naruto huffed and puffed as he jogged down the cracked sidewalk, his arms pumping at his sides and his yellow hair slicked to his forehead with sweat. The sunlight came streaming over the horizon as he ran through the dirty neighborhoods, filled with ramshackle houses all crammed together with just a little stretch of unkempt yard between them. Even though it was still early in the morning, the slums of Konoha City were beginning to buzz with activity, as the early morning commuters piled into their beat-up cars and climbed onto their bikes to make the journey to their jobs in the local drug stores and rinky-dink restaurants, or, if they were lucky, the polished portion of the city. As the sunlight hit the unwashed houses and the weedy yards, Naruto smiled brightly and slowed to a stop to appreciate it.

 _Home,_ he thought jovially, tugging at his tank top to cool himself off. The sunlight shone down on him, making him glisten slightly as the sheen of sweat on his skin gleamed. If he hadn't been warm from the run already, he was now; grinning and suddenly energized, he raised his fists to the sky.

"I'm gonna be the best boxer in the world! Believe it!" he crowed excitedly. _Even if I am from the slums, I can show that I can become something big!_

Meanwhile, on the other end of the city, Yume sat in her window as she strummed her guitar thoughtfully. She lived in an apartment on the edge of the business district, where the sprawling mass of the ramshackle houses stretched across the street. She had always found it strangely comforting, a welcome change from the coldness and pristineness of the city. She had always hated the city; it was too clean, too perfect, too _ordered._ Out there, just across the street, it was chaotic and _free._ She smiled lightly and began absentmindedly playing a song on the guitar, swaying slightly to the tune.

"I'm going to be free one day," she murmured to no one. "I'm going to hit it big, and tour the whole world spreading my music…" _And no one will make me do anything. I'll be all on my own, making my own decisions…_

Two people, two pasts, one destiny. The wheels of fate begin to turn, and bring Yume and Naruto together in a passionate journey, where each fights desperately for their dreams…

 _DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from **Naruto.** These rights belong exclusively to Masashi Kishimoto. _


	2. Chapter 1: The Beginning

_Left. Left, right. Right, left, left, right,_ Naruto thought as he slammed his fists into the hanging weight, his boxing gloves sending resounding _bam-bam-bam_ 's echoing through the empty gym. He pulled his fists close to his chest, rocking side to side slightly before quickly sidestepping his imaginary opponent and unleashing another flurry of blows into the giant bag. As he furiously pounded into the sand-filled weight, it swung violently on the metal chain; not missing a beat, Naruto weaved around the thrashing weight and continued to pummel it until the chain finally broke under the assault. With a _pow!_ , Naruto drove his right hand into the middle of the bag and sent it sailing through the air. It crashed into the wall and then to the ground.

"Another one?" came an exasperated voice. Panting, Naruto glanced over his shoulder to see his trainer Kakashi gazing forlornly at the hanging bag his protegé had just destroyed. "You're going to kill my business, Naruto."

"I'll make enough money in my next fight to buy you a hundred new bags, old man," Naruto grinned cheekily and undid the straps of his boxing gloves, tossing them onto the floor as he rolled his shoulders to work out the tension. Sweat dripped down from his messy blonde hair, and he flicked his bangs out of his eyes, sending a shower of drops shattering across the concrete floor. _Still not strong enough,_ he thought with a frown as he opened and closed his hands, feeling the muscles of his arms flexing. "One more!" he decided and bent down to retrieve another hanging bag.

"Not so fast, Naruto. The gym is closing. Go home and rest," his mentor called, and Naruto glanced up at him with pursed lips. The silver-haired man stared intently at him, so the young boxer groaned and obediently dropped the bag he was about to hang up. Stretching his arms above his head and feeling his vertebrae pop satisfactorily, he shuffled across the gym to join his teacher. "You're getting stronger. You broke five today," the man remarked as he shoved his hands in his pockets and walked with Naruto to the locker rooms.

"Yeah, but I'm not good enough yet," the boy frowned with a sniff, dropping his arms and glancing up at him out of the corner of his eyes. "I'm not gonna be satisfied until I can break twice as many!" At that declaration, Kakashi sighed as he lamented the loss of his gym revenue, then smiled and reached up to pat Naruto's sweaty head.

"Keep training like you are, and you'll be unbeatable. But no more exercise for tonight. Do nothing until your morning run, got it? If you push your body too hard, you won't be able to fight at all," he warned with a pointed look. Naruto scowled and turned away with a haughty sniff.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it! You don't have to lecture me, you know!" he whined, but was secretly disappointed that he wasn't permitted to go for a night run. He loved running at night the most, when the air was cool and the city was silent and he could see the stars glittering in the black night sky. It wasn't like in the morning, when the birds were awake and the early morning commuters were on the roads; it was all noise. At night, jogging through the slums of Konoha City that he called home with only the shadows and alley cats for company, Naruto felt truly at peace.

Pausing in the locker rooms to change into fresh clothes and retrieve his items, the pair walked out of the gym and into the light. As Kakashi locked the door behind them, Naruto paused to close his eyes and enjoy the feeling of the cool night breeze trailing over his warm skin, and listened to the sounds of distant traffic and barking dogs echoing around him. He jumped when a sudden car horn interrupted his peaceful listening, and he cracked an eye open in irritation to see a beat-up old car parked on the curb with his best friends hanging out of it with stupid grins on their faces.

"Heyyyy, Naruto!" Kiba cried, then cursed as his dog Akamaru shoved his massive head through the driver's side window and barked happily at him. "Damn it, Akamaru, what did I tell you about staying in the passenger seat? Down, boy, _down!_ " he laughed and shoved the ecstatic dog's head away, returning his attention to the boxer. "Did you forget? It's drinking night!"

"Kiba, damn near every night is drinking night for us," Shikamaru sighed from the back seat. He had one of his arms hanging outside of the car, a beer bottle clutched in his hand. That was typical for him. The lady man sighed and then grinned at Naruto. "So? You in?"

"Hell yeah, I'm in!" Naruto beamed stupidly and looked up at Kakashi. "Hey, coach, do you wanna come with?" Kakashi sighed and scratched the back of his head as he mulled it over, then shook his head.

"No, not this time. You see, I have a new book I want to read…" he frowned. Naruto screwed up his face in disgust.

"Fine, you read your nasty porn books! I'm going to get trashed!" he laughed and ran over to the car, running around to the passenger side to jump into the car. As Kiba howled with laughter and threw the car into "drive," Naruto heard his coach yelling after him to practice moderation. He wasn't going to get drunk, of course, but he just loved giving the old man a rough time. He smiled happily as he stared out the window of the car watching the shoddy buildings and ramshackle shops roll by, scratching Akamaru's head absent-mindedly.

Konoha City was the largest city in the surrounding area, and was where Naruto was born and raised. Like all cities, it paraded its high-end retail stores and stellar school district and white-washed, picket-fenced housing complexes while trying to hide its dirty underbelly- the slums, the ghetto, the realm of the poor and the unfortunate. That was where Naruto grew up, running across the cracked concrete with dirty bare feet, playing outside with a cheap basketball and the one goal the entire block shared at the rundown public park, attending a school with three security guards and a field instead of all-star coaches and a football stadium. He didn't mind that one bit, though.

One thing about growing up poor is that the entire community was in one collective effort to survive. Naruto knew everyone personally within three square miles. There were neighborhood barbecues somewhere happening all the time, and family and friends gathered for no reason but to simply celebrate being alive. Everyone around would give the shirts off their backs to help someone in need, even if that shirt was all they had. Naruto found that more beautiful than anything, and he would gladly take the unwashed houses and characteristic, knick-knacky yards and public park over the coldness of the pristine city across the tracks, because here, love flourished in the place of prosperity. Here was home.

That being said, the city had its merits- namely, the rinky-dink little bar where the love of Naruto's life worked as a part-time singer.

Well, she wasn't actually the love of his life, but she had the potential to be. One day, she would be his.

"So, Naruto," Kiba sneered at him through the rearview mirror. "Are you finally gonna work up the courage to ask out Yume this time?" Kiba and Shikamaru immediately burst into a fit of giggles, and even Akamaru howled and wagged his fail furiously, bouncing his head like he was laughing. Naruto snorted and hugged the headrest in front of him.

"That's right! I'm gonna get her number, just you wait! Then I'm gonna take her on a nice date!" he snorted determinedly. In reality, he was already breaking out into a cold sweat just thinking about the girl, and his heart began to hammer against his ribcage. _Ah, she's so beautiful, it's intimidating!_ He thought miserably as his shoulders slumped.

"Well, you might want to move fast," Shikamaru smirked as he took a swig of his beer. "I hear there's a particular patron of the bar who is quite smitten with our star singer."

"What? No way!" Naruto wailed and pulled at his hair with a whimper. They laughed at him again, and Naruto felt his stomach tie into a knot as Kiba swung the beat-up car into a parking spot. Naruto wrung his hands nervously as they got out of the car and walked up to the bar, as he furiously tried to work up his courage to talk to the pretty girl. _Come on, Naruto! You can do it!_ _Believe it!_ He told himself, but that did little to boost his self-esteem. As they walked into the small building, he felt like turning tail and taking off for home.

"Come on, Naruto," Kiba mused and clapped him on the shoulder, his other hand holding Akamaru's leash. "Relax. What girl can resist a sweaty, muscle-headed idiot like you?" He snickered. Blushing, Naruto punched him in the shoulder and stomped up to the bars, ordering a beer to ease his nerves. He joined his friends at a table facing the stage, and as the lights dimmed, he felt his heartbeat speed up and all his senses go on high alert. He leaned forward, his eyes widening, as she stepped out onto the stage. No matter how many times he saw her, he still felt enchanted.

Smiling shyly with a guitar in her hands, Yume Utabi gave the crowd a little wave before walking over to the small barstool perched on the stage and hopping up into it. She was wearing dark blue jeans with holes in the knees tonight, slim ones the hugged her figure. Her raven hair, black with hues of violet, shone under the little lighting, and her sea-blue eyes caught Naruto's for a moment. He brushed darkly and averted his gaze, and then he glanced back at her when she strummed the guitar and began to play.

When she opened her mouth and began to sing, Naruto swore that she was an angel descended from heaven, filling the bar with the sweet sound of her melodic voice. Naruto slumped in the chair with a wide smile on his face, leaning his cheek in his hand as his mind became filled with the tune of her voice. He wasn't even sure what she was saying, as her voice went low and then suddenly high, filled with passion and emotion. She bent over the guitar, foot tapping and head bobbing with the beat, and Naruto could not help but sway along. He was dimly aware of his friends laughing under their breath at him, but he didn't care. _She's gorgeous,_ he thought with a forlorn sigh. _She doesn't deserve a bum like me._ That's what he told himself every time he saw her. After all, what did he have to offer her but his heart? To him, that was far less than a sublime creature like her deserved.

Her gaze caught his again, and he felt his heart stop. His held his breath as she slowly stood up, still strumming the guitar as she walked to the edge of the stage. Gazing at him intently as she sang, she suddenly hopped onto his table, and the three of them jerked back in their chairs at the sudden appearance of the woman. Naruto stared wide-eyed into those gorgeous, perfect, blue eyes like the sea as she slowly sat down cross-legged on the table, and then suddenly it felt like it was just the two of them, all alone in the entire world, as she sat there singing to him. It was right then that he _knew,_ they were _destined_ for each other, that even if his heart was the only thing he had to give he would hand it over still beating if that was what her wanted. As she strummed the last note, she smiled sweetly at him, then turned abruptly and hopped off the table. Hips swaying slightly, she strolled purposefully to the back of the bar and entered the employees-only door.

" _Wow,"_ he breathed. "What a _woman!"_

"I see you're still eyeing that one," came a casual remark from behind him, and Naruto turned to see his friend and roommate Sasuke standing with his arms crossed, still in his police uniform.

"Yoooo! Sasuke, you made it!" Kiba grinned stupidly, holding up his beer as if to make a toast. Sasuke snorted and pulled up a chair beside Naruto, who had turned to stare longingly at the door. She came back out, and was immediately bombarded by a crowd of male fans.

"You know, Naruto, women don't take kindly to being stared at," Shikamaru mused as he hung an arm over the back of his chair.

"Just let him do as he likes," Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes. "He's not gonna do it."

"I'm gonna do it!" Naruto cried and jumped to his feet, startling his three friends and making Akamaru bark in alarm.

"What? Are you serious? She's never gonna go for street rats like us, man! Hang it up!" Kiba sighed and reached down to comfort the startled dog. "It is what it is, dude. She's from the other side. They don't mix with our kind."

"You don't know that!" Naruto huffed.

"I say let him go for it. It'll be funny to watch him get shot down," Shikamaru chuckled and waved at the bartender to bring another round of beers. "I wonder if she'll be nice about it, or slap him?"

"Naruto, don't be an idiot," Sasuke sighed, but the boxer had made up his mind. His resolve steeled, he scooped across the bar and right up to the pretty singer, who had just managed to fend of her flurry of fans. She blinked up at him in surprise as he stopped in front of her, standing straight up with his fingers digging into the sides of his pants as he struggled to force out the words.

"Yume! My name is Naruto Uzumaki!" he introduced himself loudly. He hadn't intended to shout, but he was nervous, and he tended to be a nervous yeller. Blushing brightly, he bowed his head low to her, making her jump. "I-i-i… _I REALLY WANT YOUR NUMBER!"_ he cried, and bowed his head even lower when he realized he had screamed at her. _I'm making a fool of myself!_ He lamented silently. "I-if… You don't find me disgusting…" he added in a whisper. He raised his head with wide eyes as she suddenly began to laugh, and he felt his blood turn to ice as the possibility of rejection grow suddenly likely. But she smiled sweetly at him, and he didn't see revulsion in her eyes, but genuine amusement.

"Disgusting? Why would I find you disgusting?" she chuckled. His cheeks turned red, and he scratched the back of his head shyly.

"W-well… Because I'm obviously from the slums… I don't have much money… I can't take you out to nice places, o-or buy you nice things…" he admitted. He then grabbed both hands in her own. Blue eyes met blue eyes. "But I promise, I'll treat you right! So please, can I have your number? And take you out on a date sometime?" he cried, once again raising his voice to an unnecessary volume. She blinked up at him, and he grinned as her expression relaxed into a small, happy smile. He felt his heart do a somersault as she grabbed a nearby pen from a passing waiter and took his hand to scrawl a series of numbers over his palm.

"Don't disappoint me, Naruto Uzumaki," she murmured, and looked up at him with alluring eyes. He slowly closed his hand over the black ink as she retreated back to the employee section of the restaurant, and as the door swung closed, the entire restaurant exploded with cheers and wails of dismay. People were clapping him on the back while others were shaking his shoulders asking him how he had done it, and Kiba was running around with a beer in each hand toasting Naruto's victory. Akamaru jumped up onto a table, knocking over two men's drinks, as he leaped onto Naruto and sent him to the ground. Naruto was barely aware of it, though. He felt like he was floating in a dream. He opened his hand and looked down at his palm, his eyes running over the numbers and letters scrawled there. _I'm looking forward to our date! -Yume Utabi._

"I DID IT!" he screamed suddenly and threw both fists in the air, flopping backwards onto the wooden floor. He laughed as Akamaru perched on his chest and licked his face excitedly, and his friends squatted down next to him to shower him in a pitcher of water to clear his clouded head. Even as the cold water splashed over him, he felt like he was sailing high, high above the clouds, and nothing could bring him down.

That was the beginning of it all, the dramatic moment that set all the events in motion, that would test their dreams to their very limits. Two very different people who came together in the river of destiny, guided by their hopes and dreams.


	3. Chapter 2: A Boy!

Yume crouched down as she gently set her guitar down in its velvet-lined case, and she paused to admire its wonderful amber color and smooth finish, the strings and the dark brown adornments. It was her most prized possession, her life, her entire reason for being. She ran her fingertips over the guitar before smiling and shutting the case, locking the clasps before rising to her feet. It was deep into the night, and she had performed a few more times after the entire encounter with Naruto Uzumaki. The thought of the shy, dopey boy brought a smile to her face. He and his buddies had dragged themselves home after a few more drinks, but Yume had not been able to get the yellow-haired, blue-eyed boy out of her mind.

"Packing up for the night, Yume?" called a jovial voice, and Yume glanced up to see her boss, Tsunade, leaning in the door frame of the break room. Yume bent down slightly to retrieve her guitar case, getting it up and turning to her boss. Though she was up in age, she had aged marvelously, with smooth skin and luscious blonde hair- not to mention, she was well-endowed. She was a proud, feisty woman, the perfect sort to own a bar, and Yume was quite fond of her.

"Yes. Would you like me to stay and help shut down?" Yume offered, but the woman just chuckled and waved a hand dismissively.

"Of course not. You go on home," Tsunade smiled gently before vanishing back into the bar room. Yume smiled and hefted up her guitar case to stroll down the hallway and exit out of the back door. She shuddered at the sudden cold wind, and she hastily zipped her jacket up as far as it would go and tucked the bottom half of her face into it. Shuffling over the cobblestone alleyway floor, she proceeded out onto the street, walking down the sidewalk in the stillness of the night.

Well, in the city, nothing was ever that still. As Yume strolled along the sidewalk, illuminated by the harsh light of the streetlamps looming over her head, the night hummed with noise. Cars continuously rolled by, their engines purring and speakers booming. Dogs howled and cats yowled, and occasionally she could hear the feverish screeches and yells that indicated a fight between a pair of animals. Although it was the wee hours of the night, there were still plenty of people out and about, but mostly the unsavory type. Prostitutes lounging on the corner calling out to random suitors with their pimps lurking in the shadows, drunks stumbling and cursing down the sidewalk, night owls strolling about simply to have something to do. It was all a symphony of honks and laughs and barks and shouts, and Yume hated it.

As she turned the corner to begin walking down her street, she looked across the expanse of tar to gaze longingly at the silhouette of the sprawling city within the city, the rundown hovels and dirty buildings that called the downtown district home. Over there, the sky was clear, and she could see the stars twinkling in the murky blackness. There was no light pollution, no towering restaurant signs and gigantic hotels and tens of thousands of homes to overpower the little light streaming down from above, just a few wisps of clouds sailing across the murky blackness.

"Beautiful…" she murmured, and she could not help but stop to stare out at the collection of homes. She wondered what their lives were like, living in the same city but such a different environment. They all had jobs, families, homes, hopes and dreams, aspirations, loves… _They're people, yet everyone from the city treats them differently._ Even Naruto, who had seemed so sweet, had been so worried that she would scorn him simply because of where he came from. Yume had always found the slums strangely beautiful, with its rugged lack of symmetry and hasty, mish-mash construction- and the people. Yume admired the people most of all. She admired their freedom, their passion, their zest for life. They took each day with vigor, putting in all their effort to just survive and thrive. It was inspiring, that these people who had nothing still had so much energy and reason to do their best. Yume hoped to live life like that one day, just floating along playing her music and fulfilled with just being alive.

With a sigh, she patted her guitar case and continued down the street lest she be assaulted by some passerby who took her for easy prey. She plodded down the sidewalk until her apartment complex came into view, a simple three-story building with nice grey brick and white adornments and iron-cast stairs and balconies. It was a nice place, as nice a place as she could hope for in the city, and she had a perfect view of the slums from her window. She found it easy to play when she sat in the sill gazing out at them and wondering what life would be like on the other side of the road.

She held up her guitar case as she hopped up the steps to her apartment, and she leaned if against the outside wall as she fumbled in her jacket pocket for the keys. When she was finally able to fish them out, the wind had picked up once more, and she was shuffling from one foot to the other to keep warm while she inserted the key into the lock and turned it. She bundled herself inside, gently closing the door behind her and kicking off her shoes. She proceeded through the house, tip-toeing so as not to awaken her likely sleeping roommate. When she saw light streaming from the back hallway, she laid her guitar gently on the couch and walked down the hall.

"Hinata?" she called softly as she poked her head into the open door. Her roommate was slumped over at her desk, her purple-black hair covering her face as she snored softly. The light was coming from the desk lamp, illuminating the sad state of the room. The bed hadn't been made, and the trashcan was overflowing with crumpled papers. A half-eaten sandwich lie on the corner of the desk. At the sound of her voice, Hinata stirred and looked up sleepily.

"Oh… Yume. You're home," she yawned and stretched her arms above her head, then swept her hair out of her face. She glanced down at the piece of paper scrawled with nonsense notes and sighed deeply, then rose to begin picking up the balled-up pieces of paper. "How was the night?"

"Good," she answered, and a smile naturally came to her face. "Actually… I gave a boy my number!" she squealed in excitement. Hinata gasped and dropped all of the papers she had gathered to run over to her and grab her hands.

"Really? A boy?" she cried, eyes wide. "Yume! Are you sure you should get involved with someone? I mean… With your situation and all…" she frowned quietly. The euphoria vanished as soon as it had appeared, and she narrowed her eyes and sank down onto the edge of Hinata's bed. _Oh… I'm such an idiot…_ she thought sadly. She was in no position to be getting dates.

"Oh, Hinata, what should I do?" she sighed deeply as she leaned her cheek in her hand gloomily. She had only met him tonight, but when she stepped down onto that table and sang to him, and they gazed into each other's eyes, she had felt something that she had never felt before. She felt like they _connected,_ that their hearts were linked for that moment. "I… I really like him, though," she sighed again and hung her head miserably. Hinata stared at her for a moment before walking over to her and crouching down in front of her to take her hands.

"Yume…" Hinata sighed as she rubbed her hands reassuringly. "I think you should go for it," she said after a minute. Yume glanced up with wide eyes, and Hinata smiled broadly. "You seem to really want to do this- and you deserve it. You don't need to let what happened in the past hold you back. You're living a new life now, and you deserve to be happy! I think being with someone will be good for you."

"Yeah… Yeah!" Yume nodded eagerly, and she wriggled slightly in anticipation. She hadn't dated since she was in high school, and for some reason the thought of being romantically involved with someone excited her. She pulled out her phone and flipped it open to see if she had received a text. She then cried out and dropped the phone, blushing brightly. Luckily, Hinata plucked it out of the air before it could land on the floor and potentially crack. "Oh! He texted me! I'm so nervous, Hinata, what do I say?"

"Um! I don't know!" Hinata cried back and thrust the phone back into her shaking hands. Yume stared down at the screen, where a message notification was blinking repeatedly. She took a deep breath before opening the message.

 ** _Hey, Yume! It's Naruto Uzumaki, from the club! Please text me back as soon as you can!_**

Yume squealed again and tossed the phone onto the bed, unable to look at it for too long before growing incredibly anxious. "Yume? Aren't you going to answer him?" Hinata asked with a small frown. Yume made a whining sound and reached for the phone, staring at the message. She then groaned and flopped down on the bed, burying her face into the pillow and whining louder.

"I can't do it! Oh, Hinata, what do I say? I haven't talked to a boy since high school! _High school!_ What if I look like an idiot?" she wailed, her screechy voice muffled by the soft fabric of the pillow. She wanted so badly to text him back, but she was terrified that she would mess it up. _Look at me, getting it all hot and bothered over a guy I barely know!_ She wasn't sure why she was suddenly so anxious, but her heart was pounding and her stomach was tied in knots. After a minute of squirming and screaming, she finally pulled herself together and sat up, strands of her raven hair out of place. _All right. I can do this._ She picked up the phone and swallowed nervously. "Oh, how do I start?" she squeaked.

"Um… Uh… O-oh…" Hinata fretted, flustered as she tried to assist her friend in returning the boy's message. "How about, uh, tell him you would like to meet with him sometime?" she suggested. Yume nodded eagerly and pulled up the keyboard to reply.

 ** _Hi, Naruto, it's Yume. Would you like to get together sometime? I would really like to get to know you better._**

Her heart began to palpitate viciously as her thumb hovered over the "Send" button. She then cried out and thrust the phone to Hinata.

"I can't do it!" she wailed and flopped back onto the bed, putting her hands over her eyes. "You do it, Hinata! I can't!"

"O-okay!" Hinata said meekly, and silence settled over the room. They both cried out in alarm as the message tone rang through the air, and they took a few seconds juggling the phone back and forth before it settled into Yume's hands. Before she could stop herself, she swiped the message open.

 ** _Sure! How about tomorrow, around 4? I'll pick you up._**

"Ahh! He wants to pick me up! He wants to pick me up!" she cried and jumped off the bed to run in circles around the room, laughing giddily. The nervousness had finally been replaced with sheer joy and excitement, and she leaped into the air to land on the bed beside Hinata and hastily type a reply.

 ** _Sure! I'll see you then!_**

At that final message, Yume huffed and dropped the phone onto her chest and then squealed again, covering her face and wriggling around. "Hinata! I have a date! _I have a date!"_ she cried in delight. She laughed and reached over to wrap her arms around her friend, who graciously hugged her back.

"I'm so excited for you!" Hinata laughed, and they rocked back and forth for a second before relinquishing their hold and sitting up. Yume glanced back down at the phone in her hand, and a stupid smile formed on her lips. _I'm so happy… Happier than I've been in a long time,_ she thought as she held the phone to her chest.

 _Naruto Uzumaki, huh?_ She thought. _I wonder…_


	4. Chapter 3: A Quaint Date

Naruto twiddled his fingers anxiously as he stood stiffly out on the sidewalk gazing up at the small three-story apartment complex where his date currently resides. The night before, they had finalized the details and Yume had provided her address to him, and Naruto had been relieved to find that it was in fact not far from where he called home himself. Lacking a car or any other form of transport, he had been forced to walk. _What if that turns her off? Nothing sexier than a dude without a car,_ he moped miserably before he took a deep breath to steel himself.

"All right, Naruto. Don't psych yourself out! Tonight's gonna be great! Believe it!" he grinned determinedly before pushing up the sleeves of his jacket slightly while he marched up the concrete steps to the first floor, where Yume's apartment was situated. Before he could change his mind, he knocked loudly and purposefully on the door, then stepped back and waited patiently. When the door creaked open, his mouth fell open unceremoniously.

"What?" Yume asked with a shy smile. "Do I have something on my face?" she asked in slight concern and pulled out a compact mirror to check her makeup. Naruto shook his head mutely at her; he was just simply enthralled at the woman's beauty like he always was. Her raven hair had been freshly washed and dried, and rather than falling in the usual straight waves, her luscious locks bounced in curls. Her sea-blue eyes were accented by light eye shadow that matched the simple white blouse and blue jeans she was wearing. When she closed the mirror and smiled up at him, her lipstick made her lips look even fuller, and Naruto had to quash the insane urge to kiss her.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly when he finally managed to find his words. "It just always amazes me how beautiful you are…" Yume blinked at him, but he was happy to see a faint blush forming on her cheeks. She waved a hand dismissively while a shy smile made its way onto her face.

"Oh, you're too much," she chuckled and stepped forward out of the threshold to close the door behind her and look up at him. Naruto couldn't help but smile goofily down at her, completely entranced. Yume raised an eyebrow at him as he continued to gawk, but thankfully she found his enthrallment amusing, and giggled girlishly. The sound made his heartbeat skyrocket. _I like the way she laughs,_ he thought dreamily. He gasped slightly when she reached up and flicked him lightly in the forehead. "Some date. Are you just going to stand here and stare at me?" she joked with a wide smile. Naruto went bright pink and shook his head violently.

"Ack! No! Of course not!" he sputtered defensively and cast his gaze away from the pretty girl lest he grow captivated once more. Pursing his lips as he blushed brightly, he offered her his arm, which she took with another cute giggle. _Man… I must look_ _ **so**_ _uncool right now,_ he complained inside his head as he led her down the steps to the sidewalk. It was then that he remembered that he was in fact without transportation, and he grinned nervously at her. "So, um… I don't have a car… You don't mind taking the bus, do you?" he asked her meekly. To his surprise, she lit up in elation.

"Of course not! I love taking the bus!" she cried and actually pulled him over to the bus stop to wait for the next one. "I just love to watch people," she explained as she stood beside the metal sign, still hugging his arm as they waited patiently for the large vehicle to arrive. "It's hard to do that while driving, you know? It's just so fascinating to wonder about what other people's lives are like and try to guess their personalities," she babbled excitedly, and then seemed to realize that her happy outburst could be considered strange. She looked up at him bashfully. "Oh, that's a bit weird, isn't it?"

"I don't think so," he responded honestly. "It sounds like fun to me, actually." Naruto had never really been one to care much about the doings of other people he didn't know; he was a very family-oriented individual, only inquiring after the goings-on of those involved in his inner circle. Still, hearing Yume explain it, he could see why the odd hobby would be attractive to some people. Plus, even he knew that it was foolish to directly insult the interests of a girl he was hoping to go steady with. Yume continued to smile shyly up at him, but before the two could proceed with the conversation, the jarring sound of a horn blasted in the air and they glanced down the street to see the public bus making its wide turn onto the street. Black smoke poured out of its tailpipe as it chugged along, and then the brakes squealed loudly in an effort to stop the massive structure at the sign where the pair of individuals were standing. A few people, all scruffy and obviously in the same financial state of Naruto, stepped off the bus to cross the street to head into the sprawling expanse of the world on the other side of the tracks.

"I suppose you find it odd that someone from the city like me takes public transportation," Yume mused before the question could even appear on Naruto's tongue, and he scratched his head awkwardly as the woman seemingly read his mind.

"I mean, it's interesting, to say the least. Most people from the city don't have the need to take the bus," he replied tastefully and climbed the steps of the bus to drop a handful of change into the bus driver's hand and indicate his desired stop before guiding Yume to a seat. She sat down in the chair lined with old, torn fabric while he remained standing, holding on to the metal bars above her head and sliding his free hand into his jacket pocket. "But I'm guessing you're not like other people from the city?"

"Not really," she chuckled as she placed her purse on her lap and turned to look out the window. Naruto noticed that she was staring exclusively out the side that faced the slums, clear on the other side of the aisle, rather than her window that faced the city. "I don't particularly like the city, to be honest. I moved here out of necessity. It's all just too…" she trailed off as she struggled to formulate a description in words.

"Perfect?" Naruto offered, and she glanced up at him to nod eagerly in agreement.

"Yes! Perfect!" she cried, and the level of emotion in her voice caused his eyebrow to creep up. "Why does everything need to be so ordered? Everything and everyone moves like clockwork. You get up, go to a dead-end office job, you come home to a robotic family, and get up the next day to do the same thing over! The man is _always_ the breadwinner while the woman minds the children. No one says hello to their neighbors and you can't trust anyone. What kind of life is that?" she ranted passionately. Her face had flushed red from breathlessness, as she had spilled out the entire thing without even taking a breath. When she finally breathed in, Naruto stared down at her in mild wonder.

 _She really is different,_ he thought, but the fact only made him more drawn to her. All the city girls he had ever met fit perfectly into the life she had just described; they covered material things, clothes and shoes and makeup, and had no dreams or desires further than marrying a rich doctor or lawyer and having children who grew up in the best school district and won all of the academic awards or were the best in sports. Not that it was a bad life- there was something to be said about financial security- but was it truly _living?_ Naruto had always wondered that, and so that was why he had decided to remain in the rundown, ramshackle, dirt-poor area of Konoha City where he was born and raised rather than brave the picturesque prison that was the world on the other side with the picket fences and Mercedes SUVs with soccer moms. This girl, though, _this_ girl- she was entirely different than anything he had ever encountered.

"It's not a life at all," he answered, and she looked up at him with a bright smile, happy that they were on the same page.

"Exactly. That's why I don't drive a nice car and live in a little apartment and do what makes me happy," she beamed and glanced back out the far window, watching the dirty, poorly constructed houses roll by. "You were afraid that I would reject you because you were from the slums. The truth is, Naruto, I admire people like you. You don't follow those unspoken rules that the city people do. You make your own. You do what you want, when you want, and don't worry about keeping up appearances or making connections or chasing a couple dollar bills. You _live_ ," she breathed, and her voice was full of both admiration and longing. Naruto was once again struck by the girl's strangeness. After all, how many well-kempt, attractive women not only accepted, but even _desired_ the rough life that Naruto lived? _She's truly one of a kind,_ he thought in amusement and looked out the window as well, to the oddly beautiful collection of dirty hovels and shady businesses that he called home.

"Yeah. It's a life for sure," he murmured under his breath. Neither of them could say anymore before the bus suddenly jerked to a halt. "Well, this is our stop," he announced and relinquished his grip on the metal bars to once more offer his arm to Yume. They stepped off the bus together, and the bus roared to life and zoomed off, leaving them coughing in a cloud of foul-smelling smoke. Their eyes watered as they waved their hands in front of their faces to clear the air. "Rude!" Naruto called hoarsely after the bus driver before giving Yume a lopsided grin. "Maybe I shorted him a penny or two?" he joked.

"And you called him rude? He's just a man trying to earn an honest living," she teased and slapped him lightly on the shoulder, and they both laughed loudly before continuing on their way. Naruto led her down the sidewalk alongside the slums before abruptly turning a corner and cutting straight into them. He was acutely aware of Yume's eyes migrating all over the place, drinking in all the sights and sounds she could possibly see. He couldn't blame her. It wasn't like walking the sidewalks in the city, where everyone was just focused on where they were going and all there was to see was advertisement after advertisement, or even in the residential areas, where the only thing to greet you were shuttered windows and locked doors or cold stares from people tending their prized gardens. Here, people displayed their lives in plain sight.

"Hello, Naruto!" a burly woman called from her front porch as she sat vigorously scrubbing laundry against a washboard in a wooden tub filled with soapy water. A clothesline half-filled with drying clothes was strung across the yard, and a pair of boys chased each other through the fluttering bedsheets in a feverish game of tag. A puppy ran behind them, eagerly nipping at heels with his stubby tail wagging. The yard wasn't closed off by metal fencing like in the city, but open, with a gravel driveway and a dirt path leading to the front porch that was barely holding together. Naruto could have walked right up if he wanted to.

"Good afternoon, Auntie Raiko!" he called back with a big grin, and when the large woman noticed the young girl hanging on his arm, she whistled loudly and beamed, showing off a cracked tooth.

"Well, well! Does our little Naruto have a girlfriend?" she called loudly, and the blonde boy blushed in response, mumbling shyly. Across the street, an old man stuck his head out of the window with a hoot of laughter.

"Why, Naruto! Who is that pretty little thing you got there? She's way out of your league!" he cackled before cursing as yelling erupted inside. "Damn it, you old hag, it can wait! Naruto's got himself a girlfriend!" A few seconds later a window on the second floor opened, and an equally wizened woman shoved aside the bedroom curtains to gawk at Yume.

"Well, I'll be!" she howled as she shook wispy white hair out of her wrinkled face.

"Cut it out, you geezers! You're ruining it!" Naruto shouted at them, bright red and thoroughly embarrassed. The three adults guffawed in laughter and continued to call taunts and jibes as he hurriedly pulled Yume down the street and out of sight, but he knew that by the end of the night he would be the talk of the entire connection of neighborhoods. Everybody knew everybody, and so everybody knew everything that went on in the slums, from who died that day and how to who got engaged to who got knocked up and what the father was like. Rumors flew like carrier pigeons, distorting news, and by the next morning his simple date would be exaggerated wildly into fanciful tales. As he grumpily brooded, Yume began to giggle furiously. "What?" he sniffed moodily, thinking she was laughing at him.

"I'm sorry. It's just so amusing how they tease you. You must be very close to them," she laughed. She was laughing so hard, actually, that she had to stop and hold her stomach while she wiped away tears. Naruto just continued to pout.

"Yeah, I guess, but that doesn't give 'em the right! I won't be able to leave my house tomorrow without somebody comin' up to me and saying crap like, 'Hey, Naruto, heard you went on a date! Did you have to bribe her?' or 'Hey, Naruto, I didn't know you had a hot cousin!'" he whined, but his complaints only made Yume laugh more. He couldn't help but smile though. He knew that it was all in fun for the adults to tease him, and that they were happy for him. "Whatever. I can put up with it, since I'm on a date with a pretty girl like you," he mused as she calmed herself down and smirked at him.

"You really are quite a charmer," she snickered and took his arm again. As they walked on, quite a few more people paused to greet him and inquire about Yume, but despite the jibes he pressed on until they finally reached the place he had decided to take her. He grinned widely as he threw the door open for her.

"Ta-da!" he announced with a flourish, and Yume blinked curiously as she stepped into the building.

"It's quaint," she remarked. That was the nice way of putting it. Really, it was a hole in the wall. Shoved between a grocery store and a burger joint rumored to be run by the mob, Ichiraku Ramen was barely a restaurant. It had eight tables packed together in barely enough floor space to normally hold half that amount, and the gaudy wallpaper was peeling in multiple places. The laminate flooring was coming up to reveal the stained concrete foundation, and one of the windows was cracked where a kid's baseball had struck it years ago. A fan whirled noisily overhead, circulating the stuffy air and shaking so violently it threatened to come loose at any moment. Still, the air was thick with mouthwatering smells, and a jovial old man waved excitedly from behind the counter.

"Naruto! So great to see you!" he beamed happily, then squinted at Yume. "My, my, is that a girl I see? What a beauty! How did you end up with a dope like our Naruto?" he laughed heartily and raved then over to the bar, where a few stools were situated. As they approached, he studied her intensely. "Oh! I see! You must be Yume Utabi, right?" he realized upon close inspection of his date.

"Oh? Naruto talks about me?" she mused and cocked her head to the side, and Naruto frantically cut his hand across his throat to signal for the old man to shut his mouth. It didn't work.

"Oh, yes! Not a night goes by in here where you aren't brought up!" the old man cackled mischievously. "I've never seen a man moon over a girl so much! Why, just the other day he was saying-"

" _Sooooo!"_ Naruto interjected loudly before the ramen shop owner could completely humiliate him and plopped down in a stool, slamming his palms down on the counter. "We're starving, old man! Can we get some ramen or what?" Finally getting the hint, the cook sniffed and ceased talking while Yume sat down primly in her seat. "You know what I like, old man. Yume, what do you want?" he asked her politely.

"I'll just have what you're having," she responded with a smile at him, and then glanced up at the cook. "Your food smells delicious. I can't wait to see what it tastes like!" she beamed. The old man snickered loudly and winked at Naruto.

"I see your girl has no shortage of flattery. All right, then. Two orders of miso ramen with extra pork, coming up! And since it's a special occasion, it's on the house!" he announced happily before turning his back to busy himself with preparing their meals. Naruto grinned stupidly and clapped his hands together with an excited snicker. He always loved ramen, especially _free_ ramen.

"You rock, old man!" he cried before glancing back at Yume with a broad grin. "The old man has the best ramen in the entire world! I've been coming here since I was a kid. It's my favorite!"

"I'm glad you decided to share it with me," Yume chuckled, and her soft smile made his heart skip a beat. _Gosh, she's so darn pretty and nice,_ he thought, his mind growing muddled as he stared dreamily at her. _I can't believe I'm on a date with her. I'm the luckiest guy in the world!_ He was pulled out of his love-struck stupor when she asked, "So, Naruto, what is it you want to do in life?" In response to the question, he puffed out his chest proudly.

"I'm gonna be a championship boxer!" he crowed and flexed one of his arms to pat his muscles. "Believe it! Everyone says that I'm just a no-good urchin from the slums who can't compete with those 'real' athletes from the city, but I'll show 'em! I'm gonna be the very, very best and win the international title! Believe it!" he cried and snorted loudly, as if blowing steam out of his swelled head. Yume laughed lightly, but not in mocking.

"Oh, I believe it," she nodded and smiled genuinely up at him, making his face turn pink and his mind grow fuzzy. _She believes in me?_ He thought giddily, and the thought was enough motivation to make him feel like he could run ten miles in just a few seconds. _Yeah! I'm gonna do it!_ He thought as he smirked determinedly at her.

"You'll see! I'll win the title _this year!_ " he roared and threw his hands in the air, then went red as his stomach suddenly growled loudly and completely took the dignity out of his moment. He laughed bashfully, then looked over as the shopkeeper set two steaming bowls of ramen down in front of them.

"Well, you can't be a champion on an empty stomach, so eat up!" the old man smiled kindly before disappearing into the back of the shop. At the sight of his favorite food, it felt like a fire ignited inside of him, and he hastily ripped the chopsticks apart to begin shoving the noodles sloppily into his mouth. After a few seconds of slurping, he recalled that he was in the presence of his massive crush and sat up, blushing as a noodle hung out of his mouth. He hastily swallowed it and smiled sheepishly.

"Well, that wasn't very polite, was it?" he chuckled. Yume stared at him with wide eyes, then burst into giggles.

"Naruto, you are just too funny!" she howled, clutching onto the counter as she threatened to fall out of her seat. He went pink, but began to chuckle lightly, until they were both cackling like hyenas, holding their stomachs and banging on the counter. They made such a ruckus that the ramen shop owner came bustling out of the door to see the commotion, only to find the pair of young adults practically rolling on the floor in a giggling fit.

After a few more bowls of ramen, some more antics, and a bus ride home, Naruto now stood with Yume on the threshold of her apartment. They had been standing there for a few minutes, quiet and just staring at each other, neither really sure of what to do now that the afternoon was over.

"So… I had a lot of fun tonight," he blurted finally. _That's the right thing to say after a first date, right?_

"Me too," Yume responded with a slight smile. The awkward silence settled between them again, and after a minute Yume turned and unlocked her door, glancing over her shoulder at him. "So… I guess have a good night. I'll see you at the bar sometime," she told him, and after a second of thought, she suddenly swooped in and gently planted a kiss on his cheek. He went pink and spluttered some nonsense along the lines of "Good night," while she chuckled and gave him a little wave before disappearing into the apartment. Naruto felt happiness spread through him from the top of his head all the way down to his toes, and as he hopped down the steps and walked down the sidewalk, he felt like he was floating.

 _She kissed me~!_ He thought giddily, and was so elated that he even cried out in excitement and did a little dance on the sidewalk, not caring who was watching.

It didn't occur to him until he was halfway home that he had never asked her on a second date, and as the bubble of his high burst and he began to freak out, his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled out his phone to check the message.

 _ **I had a great time with you, really. I'm off this Saturday. Would you like to go out again?**_ The message from Yume read, and he felt relief flood through him. Thankfully, his air-headedness had not cost him dearly. He texted her an affirmation before he returned the phone to his pocket and breathed in the early night air.

"I'm gonna go for a run!" he decided, unable to contain all the energy from his happiness. Just like that, he took off down the sidewalk, occasionally bursting into a satisfied snicker.

 _I'm going out with Yume again! Believe it!_

 _You watch… I'm gonna train super hard so I can make my dream come true! She'll like that, right? Oh man! I'm so pumped!_

As he sprinted deeper into the slums he so knew and loved, Naruto felt unstoppable. Finally, he felt like he was on the path that led to his international title- and the girl of his dreams.


	5. Chapter 4: Out of the Shadows

"I'm off to work, Hinata! See you later!" Yume called to her roommate cheerfully as she walked down the hall, her boots thumping against the laminate floor. She paused to check her reflection in the sheen of a picture frame, setting her hair in place before continuing on her way. Her guitar case thumped against her leg as she carried it down the hall. She heard her friend holler an affirmation as she swung the front door open and walked out into the night. After she closed the door behind her and locked it with a key, she turned around and smiled when her gaze caught the slums across the street.

 _Naruto… I wonder what he's up to?_ She thought as she gazed at the collection of houses, dark silhouettes against the setting sun. Thinking of the animated, determined boy made her heart pound slightly, and she hurriedly tore her gaze away from the slums that he called home. Their date had been more than Yume could have ever asked for, and she had enjoyed it immensely; she was very much looking forward to their second date in a few days. A slight spring in her step as she hopped down the stairs to her apartment and set off down the sidewalk, she hurried on to work while the sun sank below the horizon. They city around her was bathed in golden light, and the sky above was a tapestry of fluffy clouds tainted with the yellows and pinks and oranges of the background. Even as much as Yume hated the robotic metallics of the city, she could not deny that it looked beautiful basked in the majesty of the setting sun.

Yume decided to forgo the bus for the day to walk the distance between her apartment and her workplace. Though she did indeed love riding public transportation, she loved to do her people-watching on foot as well. The crowd she encountered on her commute to work was completely different than the individuals who haunted the streets when she returned home during the early hours of the night. Now that school had long since let out, young students perused the streets looking to shop or find entertainment, still in their crisp, clean school uniforms. Families were out and about as well, and Yume smiled as young boys and girls goggled and pointed at her guitar case; their parents, taking Yume for some kind of music-playing hippie, hastily tugged their young charges along. Businessmen willed briskly down the sidewalk, toting their document-laden suitcases while chattering on their cell phones. Dozens and dozens of people marched along the sidewalk, going about their business, and Yume was strung along in the throng.

As the night deepened, the crowd dissipated some, leaving Yume more room as she continued on her journey. Street lamps flickered to life as the light faded, and the surrounding businesses flipped on their neon lights to entice passersby to sample their wares. Bars kicked into life, and raucous conversation and bumping music spilled into the air as the doors swung open and shut as patrons poured in for a night of partying or drinking away their troubles. It was when Yume was passing one of these bars that a hand suddenly shot out of a dark alley and wrenched her violently into the dark passageway. She exclaimed loudly as she was jerked unceremoniously into the alley, and she whipped around to confront her attack. She paled when she recognized the man who had snatched her from the street.

"O-Obito!" she squeaked in surprise. The dark-haired man smirked at her, releasing her arm to pull on the cuffs of his finely tailored suit jacket. Underneath her blouse, Yume did not doubt that a hand-shaped bruise would have formed on her skin by the next morning from how harshly he had grabbed her. He smirked at her, but the hostility was clear in his expression.

"Hello, Yume. On your way to work, I see?" he mused as he looked her up at down, his eyes falling on her guitar case. She hugged it close to her body, regarding him suspiciously. As he shifted, he pulled back his suit jacket slightly, giving her a clear view of the semi-automatic pistol tucked into his waistband. She swallowed anxiously, edging toward the light provided by the street, as it would somehow protect her from the dangerous man. He continued to stare at her with glittering, dark eyes. "Yume. Why was your payment late?" he asked her. The question was innocent, but the underlying tone was harsh and laced with threatening intent.

"I-I didn't have enough money to pay both the rent and the full balance of the installment," the young singer stammered nervously, wringing her hands. "I just needed a few more days to scrape up the last bit of the money… I promise, I won't be late next time!" she pleaded.

Obito was a known loan shark, notorious for his high interest rates and brutal tactics- and rumored attachment to the mob. Even knowing the danger, rejecting from all the surrounding banks and having no one to borrow money from, Yume had been forced to take out a sizable loan from the ruthless man. As long as she paid the installments on time and in full, the mobster let her be; however, Yume was hard-pressed to do so, and sometimes he came to pay her a surprise visit to scare her into submission. As she cowered, afraid that she had offended his rules for the last time, he suddenly smiled magnanimously at her and stepped forward to place a hand on her cheek. She flinched, resenting the intimate gesture from such a cold, calculating man.

"All right, Yume," he conceded, and she could not help but breathe a shaky sigh of relief. She bit down on her lip slightly as he caressed the soft skin of her cheek, continuing to smirk at her. "You've been a good customer, so I'll give you a pass this time. Just make sure you pay your dues on time next time, or I may not be as generous," he warned, and she nodded eagerly in agreement. He pulled his hand away from her face, sliding it into the pockets of his suit pants. She expected him to take his leave of her then, but the smirk on his face suddenly widened, and she shuffled back fearfully. "You know… You work so hard for so little, Yume," he purred. Not liking where the conversation was heading, she held her guitar case protectively.

"I get by. It's hard work, but I do what I enjoy," she answered guardedly. She gasped as he abruptly reached forward and took a lock of her raven hair to rub it between his thumb and forefinger.

"You know… You're such a beautiful woman. There are things you could do to make _very_ good money," he mused, and as his gaze dropped to her chest she realized what he was insinuating and forcibly placed her guitar case between herself and the lewd man, blocking his view of her assets.

"I make just as much money as I need," she answered hotly. "I don't need any other side jobs." Obito laughed, finding her defiance amusing, but dropped the strand of her hair. "If you don't have any other business with me, I have to go to work now. I'll be late."

"Wouldn't want you to be late," Obito smirked as he backed away from her and pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. As he lit the tobacco product and took a puff of it, he grinned, blowing smoke through his teeth. "Remember to pay your dues on time, Yume, or else," he warned with threatening finality, whirling on his feet to proceed down the alleyway. Yume waited until he melted into the darkness before she exhaled deeply and collapsed against the alley way, pressing her back against the cold stone as she sunk down into a crouch, holding her beloved guitar case close. She trembled, realizing how close she had come to meeting an unfortunate end at the hands of the frightening man. Sickened, she held a hand to her mouth and let out a low whimper as tears threatened to spill down her cheeks, but she managed to fight them off. She sniffed and tilted her head back, biting her lip as she pulled herself together, and then quickly rose to her feet and exited the alleyway. Her pace brisk, she kept her head down as she proceeded on her way to Tsunade's bar.

She arrived there without incident, and by the time she did the club was alive with activity. As Yume entered the back door, she could hear the music spilling from the juke box and the hum of conversation. Tsunade's bar was very popular, largely because of Yume, and as she poked her head out of the door she could see that it was nearly stuffed to capacity. Her face flushed when she saw familiar yellow hair among the crowd, and she hastily ducked back into the hallway before Naruto could catch sight of her. This time, instead of bubbly happiness, her heart was filled with dread.

 _What was I thinking, getting involved with a guy when I'm in debt several grand to a ruthless mobster? Oh, Yume, you idiot… That's the least of your problems, to boot! I have no business getting involved with him… I'll just drag him into my mess, and who knows what will happen to him if I'm unable to pay back Obito in a time that he feels is satisfactory…_

This realization caused the young girl to become blue, and she trudged miserably to the back room where she prepared for her performances. Lifelessly, she flipped open the guitar case, and not even the shiny wooden surface of her most prized possession could lift her heavy heart. She pulled it out of the velvet-lined case to tune it, strumming the strings and twisting the tuning knobs until she was satisfied. No smile appeared on her face as usual, however. She heard the bar patrons through the wall, talking louder with excitement as one of the waitresses announced that she would be taking the stage in five minutes, but she could not fill the familiar hum in her soul as she prepared to do what she did best. With a sigh, she plopped down on the rickety couch in the break room, holding her guitar on her lap.

"Oh, dear. I can't have you go out looking like that!" tutted a voice, and Yume looked up to see her voluptuous boss leaning in the doorway of the employee break room. "Why the long face, honey the blonde woman smiled kindly. "And don't lie!" she barked more harshly when an excuse began to rise on Yume's tongue. "I won't suffer that. Be truthful." Yume slumped back into the dirty couch cushions, caught in a lie that she had not even been able to tell.

"A debt collector came calling," Yume sighed as she ran her finger over the smooth, shiny surface of her guitar. "I borrowed some money from a pretty shady guy… And I was a little late on the payment. He didn't take too kindly to that, and so he came to give me a little scare," she admitted glumly and looked up at her boss sadly. "I'm a mess, Miss Tsunade…" she moped, sinking further into her melancholy. The woman smiled sympathetically and walked over to sit beside her on the couch, tucking a stray strand of Yume's raven hair behind her ear.

"Oh, dear. Those debt collectors sure are persistent," she smirked. Yume knew Tsunade as a spitfire, and owning a bar was rough business, even on the better side of the tracks. Yume had no doubt that the middle-aged woman had tangled with people of Obito's type in her life. "I won't have anyone roughing up my beautiful singer!" she huffed and crossed her arms. "Do you need me to knock this guy around?" Her determination made Yume laugh, and the girl shook her head insistently. "Well, if you don't want me to. How about some more opportunities to sing? You only work three days a week, but I can increase it to five," the woman offered. Yume gasped, amazed at her generosity.

"No, no! That's not necessary," she insisted, but the woman was not having it.

"It's a deal, then. Now, you had better buck up, buttercup, because it's time to go on!" she grinned widely at her. Overcome with emotion, she hugged the bar owner tightly, tears in the corners in her eyes.

"Thank you so much, Miss Tsunade! I promise, I won't let you down!" she cried as she hopped to her feet, drying her eyes with the backs of her hands as she hurried out of the break room. She scuttled out to the stage, taking her seat at the barstool as the lights dimmed and the bar quieted in expectation for the woman's performance. Yume caught sight of Naruto, who was sitting at the front table like he always did with his gang of friends, his mouth slightly agape as he stared at her with nothing short of wonder. At the sight of the boy, her heart constricting slightly.

 _Naruto… I don't know what the future holds for me… But I know that I really like you… And I hope that somehow, you can be in it,_ she wished. She closed her eyes, sealing away all the writhing emotion for the day to fill herself with emptiness, the tranquil peace that she bathed herself in before every performance.

Then she opened her mouth, and the song poured out of her, flowing like a steady river. She kept her eyes closed as she abandoned herself to the emotion, the sheer joy of singing, the thing she loved most in the world. Her body moved on its own to the beat of her guitar strings as she played with her heart and soul. No matter how many times she did it, she never grew tired of the feeling of being on stage, captivating the attention of all who laid eyes on her. She opened her eyes, and she met Naruto's, just like the time a week before when she had sung to him. She was struck by the odd thought that she had always been singing to him; her attention was always drawn to him when he was in the bar, that shock of yellow hair, those sky-blue eyes, that giddy smile.

 _Naruto…_ she thought as he smiled widely at her. Yume felt guilty as she smiled back, knowing that she was dragging him right into the storm that was her turbulent life.

Would he survive it?


	6. Chapter 5: Father and Son

Naruto's breath came in hard, ragged gasps as he pounded into the punching bag, driving his gloved fists into the hard fabric with resounding slams. Sweat poured down his face, rolling down his bare chest and arms; with every swing, he sent the salty droplets whirling through the air. His blonde hair flopped into his blue eyes, which were narrowed deeply with concentration as he continued to pummel the weighted bag. _A little bit more…!_ He thought as he gritted his teeth. He swung his arm in a powerful hook, and the silver chain securing the bag to the overhead bar finally snapped under the pressure; as a result, the bag went dilating across the gym and slammed into the concrete floor with a _thunk._ Panting, Naruto smirked with satisfaction and sank down to the floor, collapsing on his back with a long groan. He squeezed his eyes shut, appreciating the chillness that the smooth concrete offered as he attempted to cool down after the intense workout.

In a few weeks, Naruto would be taking the ring for the first time that season, and as such he had been training fiercer than ever, running miles each day and spending an exuberant amount of time in the gym. He cracked his eyes open to lift up his hands and stare at them, flexing his fingers back and forth. He smiled slightly, feeling his muscles in his arm tensing. _I'm getting stronger,_ he thought giddily and flopped his arms back against the concrete. His arms struck the floor with a wet _slap_ , indicative of how much he had sweat. _Ugh. I feel gross,_ he thought with a huff before forcing himself to sit up. Every muscle in his body screamed in protest. _Guess there's no more training today,_ he thought with a small sigh. He blinked when he heard a soft chuckle, and when he glanced up, a wide smile split his flushed face.

"Dad!" he exclaimed in delight as his father Minato, sporting the same yellow hair and blue eyes that Naruto bore, strolled across the floor with his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Naruto moved to jump to his feet to embrace him, but his legs locked up and he fell clumsily on his rump. "Whoa. Guess I worked myself a little too hard," he laughed with a faint blush. His father chuckled once more and crouched down in front of his son, reaching forward to ruffle his hair affectionately. He frowned deeply as his hand came away drenched with sweat.

"You _have_ been working hard," he mused, wiping his wet hand against the fabric of his pants, and the compliment made Naruto beam with happiness. Naruto saw his parents often, but it was a rare occurrence that one of them sought him out especially. It elated him to have his father there in the gym, Naruto's sanctum, complimenting him on his hard work. Naruto's eyes brightened as his father settled himself across from the young boxer, sitting cross-legged as he smiled warmly. "So? Is it true you have a girlfriend?" he grinned, and Naruto let out a loud whine as his face turned red.

"Aw, man! Didja come all the way here to ask me _that?_ And here I thought you just wanted to spend time with me!" he complained as he whipped around so his back was to his father. Minato just laughed heartily, and Naruto smirked. He wasn't really mad, anyway- he loved to brag about the beautiful singer. As he imagined the gorgeous woman, with her raven hair, sea-blue eyes, and voluptuous body, he couldn't help but let out a dreamy sigh. _Man… What a woman!_

"That sounds like the sigh of someone in love," his father teased cheekily, making Naruto turn an even brighter shade of red. He had gotten so lost in his fantasies of Yume that he had quite forgotten his father was there. Still, he could not deny it. With a triumphant snicker, he whirled back around with a large grin.

"You heard right! You'll _never_ guess who I'm dating!" he cackled.

"Did you finally get a date with that pretty singer?" his father guessed, taking the fun out of Naruto's dramatic reveal. The boy pouted for a moment while his father laughed quietly. "Seems I guessed right. Things are going well?" he asked, and Naruto nodded eagerly. "Good. I was wondering when you would get around to asking her out. Your mother and I could hardly take the suspense!" he laughed and clapped his son on the shoulder. "So, your big fight is in a few weeks, right?"

"Yep! I'm gonna kick ass! Believe it!" Naruto crowed and punched the air, imagining he was fending off an imaginary enemy. He turned his excited eyes on his father once more. "You guys are gonna come, right?" he asked brightly, but his expression turned slightly disappointed when his father smiled sadly and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Oh… Well, we're gonna try our best," he answered evasively. Naruto narrowed his eyes suspiciously and scooched forward, hunching over as he stared intently at his father, who was looking at him awkwardly.

"Are you and Mom having money problems again?" he asked bluntly, and the way his face paled confirmed the hypothesis. "Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded hotly, his face flushing with anger. Minato and Kushina came from the heart of the slums, and like most of the population had their fair share of financial struggles; it came and went like the tides, it seemed. One moment the couple would be getting by just fine, and then next thing Naruto knew his mother and father were working themselves to the bone scraping together every cent they could. It seemed that they had fallen into a rut again. "I have some money left over from last season. I can probably get Sakura and Sasuke to front the rent for me until the fight-" he started, but his eyes widened when his father shook his head insistently.

"No, Naruto. Your mother and I will be just fine," he told him firmly, and his confidence killed any objections in the young boxer's throat. Feeling slightly guilty, he just slumped miserably on the ground, and his father laughed heartily before reaching out to tousle his hair roughly. "Now, don't get that sad look on your face! Where's that smile?" he teased, and Naruto couldn't help but laugh as his father poked him a few times in the belly.

"All right, all right! I'm smiling!" he cackled and slapped at the aggressing hand feverishly. His father beamed, and Naruto had to admit that he felt a little better. _Dad and Mom will be fine. They always are. They've gotten here, after all,_ he thought as he stretched his arms above his head and then hopped to his feet. His muscles didn't feel as sore now; in fact, he felt as good as new. As his father slowly rose to his feet, Naruto grinned at him. "Hey, Dad! Wanna go a round or two?" he asked, pointing repeatedly at the practice ring centered in the middle of the gym.

"Oh, I don't know, Naruto. I'm a little too old to be throwing around these days. It's not like when you were five," he laughed nervously, holding up his hands and shaking his head. Naruto gave him a pouty face, stamping his feet and whining like he _was_ five.

"Come onnnnn!" he insisted, and then his mouth curled into a sneer. "Oh, I get it. You're scared I'm gonna beat you, eh, old man? That's okay. I understand. Not everyone can be champion material like me!" he scoffed, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Are you trying to _goad_ me?" Minato huffed, but Naruto could tell it was working from the way his father's cheeks were slowly turning pink, and how his body stiffened as he crossed his arms. _He's totally thinking about it,_ he thought smugly. After a moment of consideration, the older man snorted and snatched a pair of boxing gloves off the bench nearby. "You're gonna eat your words, you little punk," he warned as he strapped them on and proceeded to the boxing ring, hopping up the steps and giving Naruto the "bring it on" sign. Naruto beamed cheekily and ran up to the ring, grabbing the top rope and vaulting himself over the side to land on the padded floor of the cheap boxing ring. He pulled his boxing gloves on with a snicker, knocking them together before taking up his stance.

"You ready, old man?" he called tauntingly, then squeaked in alarm as his father abruptly rushed at him. He threw up the gloves to shield his face as the flurry of blows rained down, and he quickly backed away, bouncing on the balls of his feet as his blue eyes searched for an opening in his father's form.

Though Minato was no true boxer, Naruto could not deny that he was an impressive brawler. Life had been particularly rough for his father growing up, and that life necessitated that he learn to fight- and fight Minato could. It had been his father who inspired Naruto's dream of boxing when he was barely out of diapers, and his father had strongly encouraged the idea, even picking up the sport so that he could serve as a sparring partner while Naruto was growing up.

In all his life, Naruto had _never_ beaten him.

 _Today's gonna be the day!_ He thought with a smirk as he side-stepped one of the oncoming punches and immediately went on the counterattack. As he released a flurry of punches against his father, Naruto felt that familiar feeling, a humming in his bones and a singing in his heart that was nothing more than pure exhilaration. He grinned widely as he flicked his bangs out of his eyes, sending droplets of sweat arcing through the air as he bore down on his father. Despite his age, he still kept up well with Naruto, blocking the furious blows. Round and round they went, neither gaining, until abruptly Minato drove his gloved fist into Naruto's chest, knocking the wind out of him. As Naruto reeled, fighting for breath, Minato relentlessly kept up the attack, hitting him with a savage uppercut that made Naruto's teeth knock together. Naruto crumpled immediately, falling on his hands and knees as he coughed loudly, wheezing and his jaw bruising. Still, his father had not been nearly as lethal as he could have been. _If that had been a real fight, it would have been a knockout for sure!_ He thought with a groan as he flopped down and rolled onto his back.

"What was all that about kicking my butt?" Minato laughed as he leaned over Naruto holding a hand to his ear, and the boy pouted up at him.

"Yeah, yeah, gloat all you want. I'm gonna getcha someday, old man!" he sighed, but smiled as Minato held out a hand for him with a laugh. The boy took the offered arm, allowing his father to pull him to his feet. Naruto whined loudly as he rubbed his chin, feeling the sizable bruise that would likely discolor his face by the next day. "Man, Dad, did you have to hit me that hard? I'm trying to get a second date with Yume soon! I can't go out looking like this!" he complained and butted his father in the shoulder with his head.

"Get off! You're all sweaty!" Minato snickered and shoved him away, then grabbed him in a light chokehold and ruffled his hair when Naruto attempted to butt him again. "Tell her you got in a fight. I'll even let you lie and say you won!" he teased, while Naruto squirmed in the strong man's grasp. He continued to tease his son for a few minutes before releasing him. Naruto stumbled over to the railing and rubbed his neck, groaning.

"Man, I can't believe this. It's the first time I've seen you in weeks, and not only do you make fun of me, you beat me up and then make fun of me some more? Not cool!" he muttered, and Minato walked over to throw his arm around his shoulders.

"Okay, okay. I relent. Why don't we go get some ramen? You've earned it," his father offered, and a smile immediately appeared on his face.

"Oh yeah! Let's do it!" he cheered, throwing his arms in the air with such force that both of them nearly fell over. They erupted into a fit of laughter before climbing out of the ring, and as Naruto glanced over his shoulder when he went to flip off the gym lights, he smiled. "Dad… I promise. I'm gonna make you and Mom proud. Believe it!" he grinned to his father. Minato smirked and flicked him in the forehead.

"You loony. Your mother and I are already proud," he sighed and shook his head with a small smile. "Come on. I'll call your mom to meet us," he offered as he pushed Naruto towards the entrance of the gym.

 _You'll see,_ he thought determinedly as he allowed his father to usher him out the door. _I'll make you both the proudest parents alive. I'm gonna win that title!_

… _I'll win it for you, too, Yume._


	7. Chapter 6: Destined

**_Trigger Warning:_** _This chapter features an instance of intended sexual assault (no actual). Please read with caution._

" _Yume! Yume! Yume!"_

As the young singer stood behind the curtain of the stage, her eyes closed as she listened to the impatient chants of the bar patrons, she exhaled deeply as she descended into that cool calmness that pervaded her every time she performed. Everything abruptly lulled into quietness, and the excited shouts of the people beyond the curtain seemed far, far away; it was just her, standing in the gloom of the backstage, holding her beloved guitar. As she stood there in the mute silence, she could feel the song rising inside of her. It was like a small fire, first an ember, flickering softly, and then it grew slowly into a roaring inferno. Her blue eyes flashed open, and then she threw the curtain aside and walked out onto the stage, into the spotlight and the gazes of her adoring fans. The bar erupted into cheers and happy shouts as the woman strolled out, her heels clicking on the wooden stage as she sat down on the small barstool and pulled the microphone closer to herself. The bar fell quiet as she opened her mouth, and the song exploded from inside of her.

It was no longer a fire, but cool, liquid water, pouring out of her like a smooth river. Her voice floated throughout the bar, rising and falling like the ocean tides, captivating all who were present. Her body swayed like gentle waves to the beat of her fingers strumming the guitar. She was a waterfall of music, serene and powerful- to many at the scene, nothing short of a radiant goddess.

After her performance, Yume retreated backstage as usual, while her patrons whined loudly and pleaded for encores. However, rather than walk out of the employee door to greet her fans, she walked to the break room and returned her guitar to its case with a heavy sigh. _I can't face him,_ she thought forlornly. Ever since Obito had cornered her in the alleyway and threatened her, she couldn't bring herself to face the optimistic, handsome boy who had captured her affections. It was obvious that Naruto thought fondly of her, and she knew that if she stayed involved with him she would drag him down into that deep, dark place she was in. She could not bring herself to.

"Not greeting your fans again today?" a voice mused from the threshold of the door, and the girl looked up to see her boss standing there with her arms crossed. "That poor boy has been quite anxious to see you, you know. He waits at that door like a puppy waiting for its owner," she chuckled with a suggestive look, and Yume felt a pang of guilt. _Oh, Naruto…_

"I just can't drag him down with me. He's just too kind…" she sighed as she snapped the guitar case shut and rubbed the top slightly.

"Honey, you have _got_ to stop this. I know you fear that your past will catch up to you, but so what? Naruto is a great kid. You have to invest in your future, too," Tsunade retorted pointedly, frowning deeply at her and pointing at her firmly. "You are too beautiful and too kind to have to suffer like this. You're young! You need to enjoy yourself!" she scolded her, and Yume slumped back against the dingy couch with a pouty expression.

"You're right," she mumbled and leaned her head back against the rough fabric, blowing a piece of her raven hair out of her face. She owed it to Naruto to either give him a chance, or at least let him down easy. Resigned to the situation, she sighed and rose to her feet. Tsunade smirked slightly and disappeared down the hallway, walking back to her office to attend to her duties, while Yume walked to the employee door and gently cracked it, peeking through the crack. She gasped as a shock of blonde hair and sky-blue eyes immediately appeared in her vision, and her cheeks turned bright pink. Caught red-handed, she pulled the door open and looked up at him shyly. His face immediately lit up in glee.

"Yume! I was wondering when you would come out," he beamed down at her. He narrowed his eyes slightly as he noticed her strange behavior. "It's so weird for you to hide in the back. Has somebody been harassing you?" he asked and glanced over his shoulder at the other bar patrons with a deep frown. "Do I need to beat somebody up? I'll do it," he told her as he glanced back at her, eyebrows raised. Yume couldn't hello but laugh at how quickly he jumped to conclusions. _Aw. He's been worried about me,_ she thought, and could not help but feel guilty once more. _I can't believe that I've been doing this to him._

"No, no," she smiled weakly and shook her head. "I've just been busy helping Tsunade with the filing for some extra cash." It wasn't a lie, either. In addition to provided her more performances, the willful woman had hired Yume as a sort of assistant to help her with business dealings during the day. Yume was deeply grateful and thus poured a lot of her time into helping her boss, which made her twice as busy as normal. Admittedly, she had neglected her phone of late and had hardly paid attention to Naruto's messages. "I put in a lot of hours, and so recently I've just been so exhausted after performances that I just want to relax for a while." It was a half-truth, at least.

"Oh. I see. That sounds pretty rough," he told her with a slight grimace. "So that's why you haven't been texting me. To be honest, I was a little worried," he laughed nervously. "I thought that maybe you weren't into me or something…" he smiled weakly at her, and she could see the shadow of doubt on his expression, like he was wary that Yume had been ignoring him after all. She _had,_ but not for that reason.

"No. I'm still looking forward to that second date," she smiled up at him. _Tsunade is right… I need to enjoy myself. There's no reason for me to be afraid all my life over what could or could not be…_ she convinced herself. Naruto grinned stupidly, but before he could say anything else, the bar suddenly erupted with a loud commotion. It seems that the dog belonging to his friend had grown a little rowdy, and had jumped onto the table, knocking over beers as he wagged his massive tail.

"Agh! Akamaru, no! Kiba! Control your mutt!" Naruto cried and rushed over to try and subdue the massive hound. Yume giggled as she watched the three men attempt to wrangle in the giant dog, who thought it was just a game and was making matters worse by running around, ducking between legs and knocking over chairs and tables. Yume was so involved in watching the amusing scene that she didn't notice that someone was sneaking along the wall toward her until a hand covered her mouth, muffling her shocked scream. She froze as she felt the cold blade of a knife press against her throat.

"Now, don't attract any attention if you know what's good for you," her assailant growled in her ear, sending shivers traveling up her spine. Still, Yume obediently remained silent as the hand slipped from her mouth, and she glanced at the man out of the corners of her eyes. He was a regular at the bar and very animated during her performances, and Yume knew at once that it was a fan gone wild. She had never had to deal with the kind before, and so she just trembled as he rested the tip of the knife against her side, unsure of how to react to the situation. The bar had descended into such chaos that no one noticed the singer's plight. "That's a good girl. Now, turn around and walk through the door," he demanded, jabbing her with the knife impatiently, and she gulped before slowly turning on her feet and walking back through the employee door. Yume's sea-blue eyes scanned the dimly lit hallway, desperately searching for any item that she could defend herself with, but unfortunately there was nothing to aid her. He guided her to the break room and abruptly shoved her inside, causing her to stumble. She whipped around just as he shut the door and locked it behind him, smirking as he pointed the knife threateningly at her. "Now, don't get any bright ideas. Give me what I want and you'll live through this," he grinned at her. His eyes were pure lust, and every hair on Yume's body stood on end.

"You don't have to do this," she pleaded quietly. Yume knew that these kinds of situation came with the business she was in, and the best defense was to distract the assailant long enough to escape, or somehow diffuse the situation by appealing to whatever mercy they may have. "If you turn around and leave now, I won't ever say anything," she told him, gulping as he slowly advanced on her. She could see from his expression that her appeal to his better nature was not working.

"Get on the couch," he growled, and Yume stumbled backward, falling onto the piece of furniture as he eyes widened in fright. Her fingers dug into the thin fabric as he ran the blade across her cheek, down her neck, and over her chest to tease the top button of her blouse open. He smiled at her, a smile of delirium, and she flinched as she cupped her cheek. "You're so beautiful," he sighed. "Won't you sing for me?" When Yume failed to comply, he sliced her blouse open with one clean sweep, causing her to whimper. "Sing!"

Try as she might, Yume's voice had died. Shaking violently as she stared up at him in pure terror, her blouse hanging open, she couldn't speak, much less sing. This seemed to irritate him, and he roughly grabbed her by the hair and forced her against the back of the couch, the knife trailing over her bare skin. "Oh, don't cry," he purred as tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes. "I love you, you know? I'll treat you very nice, Yume." His breath wreaked strongly of alcohol, making her nauseous.

Positively terrified, Yume sent out a silent plea for help.

 _Naruto…!_

By some divine grace, her plea was heard. The man jumped backwards as someone pounded wildly on the door and jiggled the locked door.

"Yume!" Naruto called, his tone of voice suspicious. Overwhelmingly relieved to hear the sound of his voice, Yume momentarily forgot the danger she was in and sprung off the couch in an attempt to run for the door.

"Naruto!" she shrieked, then screamed as the hand latched around her hair again and yanked her back. "No! Let go of me! _Let go!_ Naruto!" she sobbed miserably as the man wrestled her into submission, attempting to drag her over to the break room window.

"Be quiet! Don't make me hurt you!" the man snapped, then gasped as the break room door suddenly lurched violently. It began to splinter beneath the tremendous force, and after a few blows Naruto crashed through the door, knocking it half off its hinges and leaving it a splintered mess. The force of his momentum had knocked him off-balance, however, and he landed clumsily on the floor.

"Sick 'im, Akamaru!" shouted the brunette dog handler, and the dog barked and bounded across the room to sink his jaws into Yume's attacker with a snarl. The man cried out and shoved Yume away as he punched the dog in the head in an attempt to beat him off, but only managed to land one blow before Naruto, on his feet, hit him with a savage punch that knocked him out immediately. He crumpled like a rag doll, and the massive hound released his grip and sat down on his back, panting and wagging his tail happily. "Good boy!" his master grinned, and Akamaru barked elatedly in response. Yume stood off to the side, her eyes wide as she stared at the unconscious man.

"Ugh. What an asshole," snorted Naruto's other friend as he poked his head into the room with a sniff. He had angled eyes, and his hair was drawn into a tight ponytail. He took a swig of the beer in his hand and walked over, prodding the drooling man in the face with his toe. "Out like a light. Nice hit, Naruto," he remarked in disdain. The blonde-haired boy was too busy with Yume, however.

"Yume! Are you okay?" he cried, wrenching off his sweatshirt and pulling it over her head. Yume spluttered at the sudden action, spitting out strands of her raven hair. She went red as she pulled the sweatshirt around herself, looking down at her feet.

"Thank you…" she murmured gratefully.

"Yume! Are you all right?" Tsunade called as she shouldered past the crowd gathered at the employee room and stomped in, a baseball bat in her hands. She snorted as her eyes landed on the unconscious man. "Ugh. Men!" she snorted and rolled her eyes before grabbing him by the back of his shirt and throwing him across the room. "Get that drunk outta here! He's blacklisted!" she shouted, and the patrons squeaked in alarm as the man sailed across the room and crashed into them. Not eager to stay around the fiery woman, they dragged him off. Tsunade whipped around with a huff, leaning against the bat as she regarded the three boys, who were gawking at her in a mixture of fear and awe. "Well, I suppose I have you three to thank for saving my singer," she smirked.

"Um. Uh. It wasn't a problem! Believe it!" Naruto blushed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I noticed she was gone, and I thought that was weird, so I went to check on her and found the door locked… She called for help, y'know, and I just _had_ to get in here… Sorry about the door," he smiled sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it. It's a small price to pay for Yume's safety. Now, you boys want some drinks she offered, and the boys cheered happily. Yume went with them out to the bar while Tsunade gifted them with alcohol. She learned that the boy with the dog was named Kiba, and he was a feisty, boisterous guy who had a personality so similar to Naruto's that they occasionally butted heads. The other, the one with the disinterested look and lazy demeanor was Shikamaru, who was actually a genuine genius who just had no will to do anything. They were unique companions, but then again, Naruto was a pretty unique guy, so she supposed it made sense. They drank for another hour of so before the boys decided to head home. Because they had all drunk quite a bit, they opted to walk back and would return in the morning for Kiba's beat-up car, and so the pretty singer set off with the three boys.

"So, Yume, do you have problems with guys like that often?" Kiba asked her with raised eyebrows. Yume shook her head.

"No. This was the first time that I had to deal with a crazed fan," she sighed deeply. "I knew that it came with the job, but nothing could have prepared me for that. I'm really glad you guys were there…" She glanced out of the corners of her eyes at Naruto, who was walking along beside her. _Naruto… Did you hear my cry for help?_ She thought. It was nothing short of amazing that just as she thought of him that he had come along. Yume could only describe it as fate.

"Yeah, well, I'd like to see anyone try and lay their hands on you now!" Naruto huffed and pounded one fist into his other palm. "I'll knock anyone who tries to mess with you flat on their behinds. Believe it!" he grinned at her, and Yume had to admit that she felt at ease knowing that the capable young boy was looking out for her. "We'll look out for you, Yume."

"I appreciate that," she smiled softly, and she really did.

After about a thirty minute walk back to her apartment, Yume stood on the threshold of the doorway with Naruto. The other boys were lounging on the sidewalk waiting for their friend to say his farewells to the pretty singer. Yume glanced down when she realized that she was still wearing Naruto's sweatshirt. "Oh. Here, this is yours," she blinked and moved to pull it off. She blushed when he grabbed her hands, preventing her from doing so.

"Nah. You keep it," he smiled kindly at her. "So… I know we haven't been talking much, but… I've been really looking forward to going out with you again," he told her bashfully, his cheeks turning pink. "Are you free tomorrow?"

Yume gazed up at him, wrestling with her mind and her heart. _I want to focus on the future._

"Yes. I'm free. I would love to go out again, Naruto," she beamed up at him, and his face immediately lit up in excitement. She chuckled as he jumped up and down and punched the air, positively elated. He then realized how much of a fool he was acting and calmed down, red-faced.

"Uh, great. I'll call you," he snickered and gazed at her for a moment longer before smiling stupidly and scampering down the steps to rejoin his friends. Yume leaned in the doorway as she watched them leave, sniggering and shoving each other as they walked across the street towards the slums they called home. Yume leaned her head against the wood siding with a tiny smile, her eyes locked on that peculiar boy with the yellow hair and blue eyes.

 _Naruto Uzumaki… I'm beginning to think we were destined to meet._


	8. Chapter 7: Rush Hour

As Naruto stood in front of his bathroom mirror, he drowned determinedly and slapped his hands against his cheeks with enough force to leave them stinging slightly and faintly pink.

"All right! Today is gonna be great! Don't screw this up, Naruto!" he told himself firmly and pointed at his reflection in the mirrored glass before grinning stupidly to himself. "Believe it! Yume is gonna be crazy about me by the end of the day!" he assured himself before giving himself a fist-bump in the small bathroom mirror before snickering under his breath and rushing out into the hallway to head out for his second date with the beautiful singer. In his socks, he slid across the laminate floor off the hallway and glided into the main entryway to retrieve his shoes. As he was pulling one on, he blinked when he abruptly felt someone hug his leg, and he looked over to see his roommates' young daughter, Sarada, clinging to him and smiling happily.

"Are you going to the gym, Uncle Naruto?" she beamed up at him. Naruto smiled gently and reached down to ruffle her dark black hair, making her giggle and swat at his hand. "Stop it!" she laughed.

"No, I'm not going to the gym today. I'm going on a date!" he grinned down at the little girl. Sarada frowned up at him and promptly tightened her hold around his leg, obviously jealous. He found it quite amusing, so he laughed and leaned down to grab her underneath the arms and lift her high into the air, whirling her around; her grumpiness immediately vanished, and she squealed with delight as the muscular man twirled her around before dropping her down into his arms. "Don't worry, Sarada! You're still my number-one girl!" he grinned and gently bopped her on the nose with his finger. "Promise!"

"Okay, Uncle Naruto," she consented as she wrapped her little arms around his neck and stared up at him with large bespectacled eyes. "Is she pretty?" she asked suddenly.

"Oh, yeah," he confirmed, nodding and smirking as the image of the beautiful woman flashed in his mind. "Very pretty, and very nice, too. You'd love her. Would you like to meet her sometime?" he offered.

"Yeah! I have to make sure that she is good for my Uncle Naruto!" she cried out, throwing her arms in the air and beaming at him. As Naruto smiled at the cute child, nuzzling her and tickling her while she giggled uncontrollably, Sarada's mother strolled into the entryway wearing an apron and holding a bowl of some steaming food or another.

"There you are! I was wondering where you were. Are you in here bothering Naruto?" Sakura chuckled as Naruto ceased playing with the little girl and promptly set her down to finish pulling on and tying his shoes. Sarada tottered over to her mother, who leaned down to give her the bowl of what Naruto now realized to be macaroni and cheese, before taking the bowl and hurrying back to the living room to return to her cartoons. Sakura watched her run off with a small smile before returning her attention to her blonde-haired friend hastily pulling on his shoes. "Off to meet Yume, huh?"

"Yeah! I'm really excited," he admitted bashfully. "I really want her to like me, ya know. I feel like she's holding back something… I don't know if she's just not into me or it's something else, but it's like… We aren't on the same page, ya know?" he sighed. Though Yume had given him a reasonable explanation for ignoring him for a couple of weeks, he was not naïve enough to not notice her apprehension. She seemed to like him well enough, but he hoped she had not agreed to a second date on account of being annoyed with his persistence or pitying him because he was so smitten with her. "I'm gonna be pretty bummed if it doesn't work out…" As he pouted, Sakura smiled and walked over to clap him reassuringly on the shoulder.

"Cheer up! What woman in their right mind wouldn't like a guy like you?" she smiled at him before pulling the door open and bustling the despondent boxer outside. "You get out there and get her, tiger! You've had a crush on Yume for such a long time! Don't let her slip away now," she mused as she pushed him down the rickety wooden steps leading onto the sidewalk in front of their apartment. At her encouragement, Naruto grinned stupidly and hastily nodded.

"All right! I'm off! Wish me luck!" he cried before whirling on his feet and taking off in a jog, trotting along the concrete pathway into the dirty, crowded bustle of the slums. It was early in the afternoon, and the weather was quite nice to boot, so many of the residents had drifted out of their rundown hovels to partake in the warm sunlight and gentle breeze that the day had to offer. As Naruto jogged along, bare-footed children running across the grass playing tag or shuffling across the asphalt as they were embroiled in feverish games of street ball waved and called out to him, begging them to join them. He politely refused, smiling weakly when the whined loudly and grumpily returned to their games; as much as the young man would love to play with the children as he normally did, he was a man on a mission today. He had to make Yume his.

Mothers stood in the yards, keeping a watchful eye on their offspring as they busied themselves with washing clothes or tending their gardens or other household chores; their male counterparts were hard at work as well, washing cars and mowing lawns and performing upkeep on their houses. The air rang with the hum of lawnmowers and the ringing of hammers against nails and the rushing of water from hoses, but among that was the _true_ sound of the slums- laughter, smiles hidden behind cheerful words, the din of what Naruto could only describe as happiness. As he made his way towards the beautiful woman he was set to meet, Naruto's elation just mingled with the rest, an unseen light that blazed brighter than the sun and chased the ever-encroaching darkness away.

Abruptly, a flash of color caught his eye, and he slowed to a stop on the sidewalk in front of q charming building on the corner of two streets. Against the muted browns and grays, this building was very conspicuous, painted a bright blue with white adornments. Flower pots blooming with colorful flowers stood on either side of the double doors, and more flower pots sat on the window sills, bursting with little blooms. Above the door was a hand-carved sign reading Yamanaka Flowers. "Flowers! Of course he beamed suddenly as an idea hatched in his mind. Women loved flowers, right? Surely bringing Yume a bouquet of flowers would help his cause. Determined, he hopped off the sidewalk to cross the small stepping-stone pathway and strode in through the entrance. A little bell rang above his head, signaling his arrival to the storekeeper.

"Hello! How can I- Oh! Naruto!" cried a cheerful voice, and the yellow-haired boy glanced at the counter to see Ino Yamanaka leaning against the counter with a smile on her lips. She was a pretty woman, one of Sakura's best friend who had returned to Konoha City after two years of living in the countryside to pursue a career in acting. "I wondered when you would drop by. Bringing Yume flowers?" she teased.

"Man, does _everyone_ know?" Naruto whined as he shoved his hands in his pockets and slouched grumpily. He should have known that his romantic pursuits wouldn't remain low-profile, especially since he was somewhat of a celebrity in the small, cramped space that was the slums. Ino just smiled knowingly at him, making him blush slightly. Embarrassed, he turned his gaze upon the assortments of flowers that the florist had prepared, and frowned deeply. _There's no way that I can afford a bouquet_ _ **and**_ _to take her out,_ he realized forlornly, pulling a small wad of bills out of his pocket and lamenting his meager means. "Uh, hey, Ino… What's the cheapest thing you have?" he mumbled, glancing at the blonde woman out of the corners of his eyes. She blinked in slight surprise, then smirked and walked out from behind the counter to shove him roughly in the arm. "Hey, what's that for?"

"If you think I'm gonna let you walk out of here with something lame, you had better think again," she laughed before putting a hand on her chin and browsing her wares thoughtfully. "Now, let's see. Roses are a classic, but I have a feeling that something more personal will win you brownie points," she decided. "Do you know use favorite flower?" she inquired, and when the clueless boy shook his head, she tutted om disappointment. "You're lucky you have me, Naruto, otherwise you wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of keeping this girl," she snorted.

"Hey!" he whined, but Ino had already disappeared among the shelves, muttering under her breath. Naruto followed grumpily, wondering if he should have stopped at a stranger's shop to spare himself the ridicule.

"From what I've heard, she's a classy lady who has a down-to-earth personality and isn't too flashy, am I right?" Ino asked him as she strode amongst the many blooms. When he nodded, she stopped in place for a moment, her arms crossed and her finger tapping as she pursed her lips thoughtfully; then, she abruptly turned and plucked a small arrangement off the shelf before shoving it in his hands. "This one. Tulips. They are a declaration of love, even more so than roses in some eyes, and represent passionate, sensitive women. You can't go wrong with these, Naruto," she assured him. He looked down at the yellow and red flowers in his hands with some uncertainty, but then again, Ino grew up learning the language of flowers, so surely she knew what she was doing.

"How much do I owe you?" he asked her, almost afraid to look at the price tag.

"A successful date," she answered primly before grabbing him by the shoulders and whirling him about. "I'll consider it an investment. Next time, come prepared, because I'll charge you full-price _and_ for my advice!" she joked as she steered him out of the shop. The little bell twinkled as she shoved him out onto the sidewalk. "Now, go get that girl, Naruto! You had better come back and tell me how it goes!" she called with a giggle.

"Oh, uh. Thanks, Ino!" he grinned broadly before taking off down the sidewalk. He hurriedly slowed to a brisk walk as the florist barked at him to do so before he damage the flowers. He looked down at the bunch of lilies with a small smile. _Everyone really wants it to work out,_ he thought happily. Naruto never really did have luck with women, and Yume had been on his mind for some time; it seemed his friends were elated at the prospect that he would have a girlfriend, and were doing everything in their power to cheer him on. That thought made him feel warm and fuzzy. _I'm gonna make sure that everything goes well!_ He resolved before hurrying on his way.

Humming happily under his breath as he strolled through the commercial district of the rundown side of the city, he held the flowers securely in his hand as he hustled along. _At this pace, I should make it with time to spare,_ he thought as he glanced down at his watch. He glanced up when he suddenly heard a woman screaming.

"Help! Help! He stole my purse!" wailed a young woman standing in front of a shop and pointing down the road, where a man in a hoodie was dashing off with her purse in tow. Naruto looked down at his watch with a slight grimace. _I have time,_ he thought before trotting over to the woman.

"Hold these, please!" he cried as he shoved the tulips in her hands before taking off in a sprint after the perpetrator. When he looked over his shoulder and saw the boxer running after him, the thief yelped and attempted to buy time by cutting into the alleyways, but that wouldn't stop Naruto. It didn't take long for him to catch up, give the thief a beat-down, and come trotting back to the young woman with her purse swinging from his hand. "Here you go!" he beamed at her as he handed it over and took the bouquet of flowers back.

"Oh! Thank you so much!" she cried in delight and looked up at him with red cheeks. "I must thank you somehow. Would you like to-"

"Can't talk anymore, lady, gotta run! Stay safe!" he cried as he looked down at his watch and took off. He had wasted about ten minutes on retrieving the purse, leaving him a smaller window of time to reach the location he was meeting Yume than he would prefer. He jogged down the sidewalk, weaving around the passersby and ignoring the cheerful calls. While he would normally stop and chat, he unfortunately didn't have the luxury at the moment. _If I keep getting distracted, I'm gonna be late!_ He thought in slight panic.

"Waaaah! Somebody help!" Another cry of distress caught the young man's attention, and Naruto glanced around to see a little girl standing at the base of a tree, bawling. Naruto whimpered as he glanced at his watch, but he could not simply leave a little girl crying. Cursing his own chivalrousness, he walked over to the sobbing child and kneeled down in front of her.

"What's the matter?" he asked her with a reassuring smile.

"My kitty is stuck in the tree!" she sniffled miserably and looked up into the leafy branches. Naruto glanced up, and amongst the green he could discern patches of orange that was indicative of the cat's fur. He stood up and patted the girl's head before clamping down on the wrapped stems of the tulips and jumping up into the bough of the tree. Slowly, he picked his way through the branches, higher and higher, until finally he reached the level where the terrified cat was perched.

"Nish kitty," he crooned through the bouquet of flowers in his teeth as he shuffled along the branch towards the cat. Thoroughly startled, the cat hissed savagely at him and lashed out with a clawed paw, nearly slicing Naruto's hand open. "Shtupid cat! I'm trying to help!" he whined as he wobbled precariously on the thin branch. He reached out and grabbed the cat by the scruff of the neck and pulled at it to dislodge it from the bark, but the creature dug its claws into the branch and held fast. As he struggled, Naruto yelped as he suddenly became unbalanced and slipped off the side of the branch, bringing the yowling cat with him. It latched onto his chest as he tumbled through the branches and landed roughly on the ground. Naruto groaned as he lay sprawled on his back in the grass, scratched several places from sharp twigs and cat's claws, while the cat meowed and hopped off him to prance over to its master and wind itself around her legs. Naruto sat up with a gasp and pulled the flowers from his mouth, relieved to find that they were relatively unscathed.

"Thank you, Mister!" the little girl beamed as she picked up the cat and held it, though it was nearly half her size.

"Yeah, yeah. Keep an eye on that thing, will you?" he whined and stood up, then checked his watch. "Oh, crap! I gotta go! I'm gonna keep Yume waiting!" he shouted and took off again without so much as a second glance at the small child.

"Good luck on your date, Mister!" the little girl laughed after him, and even the cat meowed. Naruto was already halfway down the street, careening around the corner as he made a mad-dash for his destination.

"Agh! I can make it! I can make it!" he shouted in panic.

 _Oh, crap! I'm not gonna make it in time! Hold on, Yume, I'm coming…!_

 _I just want this to go well…!_


	9. Chapter 8: Doubts

Yume held her purse close to her side as she waited patiently at the intersection that she and Naruto had decided to meet for their second date, occasionally glancing down the sidewalk in either direction to see if she could spot the boisterous blonde man. Time seemed to tick endlessly by as she stood on the busy street corner as people streamed by, absorbed in the phones and conversations and thoughts and completely oblivious to the pretty singer waiting awkwardly for her date. After the handsome boxer did not show, she looked down at her phone with a small sigh. _He's fifteen minutes late… Am I being stood up? He doesn't seem like the kind of person who would do that, though,_ she fretted as she locked her phone and again raised her head to scan the surrounding area for any sign of him. After five more minutes of impatiently shifting her weight from foot to foot and pondering the implications of the delay, she wondered if it was a sign that she and Naruto were not meant to be, and she should therefore abandon the hope.

"Yumeeeeeee!" came a sudden cry from the distance, echoing on her left, and with an expression of surprise and relief she turned her head to see him waving frantically at her as he shoved his way through the small crowed. Thankfully Naruto was quite tall, as she could see him clearly among the throng- with additional surety from that unmistakable shock of yellow hair beaming at her like the blazing sun on a summer's day. She turned to face him as he stumbled out of the throng, panting heavily as he slowly came to a stop in front of her. He was practically wheezing, doubled over and holding his belly with one hand while he forced out words. "Sorry… I'm late… Aaaah… A lot of… Distractions… Robbery… Cat in tree… Old lady crossing street… Aaaaaaagh…" he choked out between sucking air into his lungs, and despite his vague descriptions, Yume could guess what had occurred.

 _So he's the type that has to stop and help anyone in trouble, huh?_ She thought with a giggle. _How like him._ After a few minutes of hard breathing, he finally straightened up to suck in one last deep breath before grinning widely at her. "I got you these!" he beamed and thrust a bouquet of sweet-smelling flowers right into her face. She blinked rapidly, unable to really see anything but the richly colored flowers and Naruto's eager eyes peering at her from above, and the thick aroma of fresh tulips combined with the soft petals tickling her nose almost made her sneeze. Hastily, she reached up to take them from the excited man and pulled them to a much safer distance so that she could admire them properly.

"Thank you. They're beautiful," she smiled happily, a bubbly feeling rising in her chest. _He got me flowers…_ Yume had of course been given flowers before, but oddly she felt positively giddy at the notion that Naruto had done such a thing, as if it were the first time. _I don't need to get too attached,_ she reminded herself sternly. _I need to keep him at arm's length for now, just in case things go south from here. There's just so much that can go wrong…_ As she thought that, she glanced up at Naruto, who's eyes were practically sparkling with childlike happiness. _Am I wrong for this?_

"I'm glad you like them! Somehow they managed to survive okay!" he laughed as he put his hands on his hips and leaned over the flowers like a craftsman inspecting his handiwork. "Mhmm! Not a scratch on 'em!"

"What exactly did you _do,_ Naruto?" she chuckled, making him turn a faint shade of pink.

"Let's not get into the details," he said quickly before glancing at his watch. "Oh, shoot! Look at the time! We're gonna miss it!" he cried, and in his panic, grabbed Yume's hand to pull her roughly down the sidewalk. Though he seemed to think nothing of the action, her face was immediately afire with a raging blush so intense that she could feel her own face burning. _He's holding my hand!_ She thought with a silent half-squeal, half-scream. She stumbled over her own feet as the tall, muscular man practically dragged her along the sidewalk, and she had to jog briskly in order to keep up with his long stride. To try and take her mind off the fact that her hand was clutched tightly within his, she glanced up, and was immediately captivated by his broad shoulders and the back muscles flexing beneath his shirt. _Oh my…_ she thought shamelessly, not helping to control her raging blush. After a few minutes of being frantically tugged along, it suddenly occurred to her that she had no idea where they were going.

"What are we going to be late for, Naruto?" she cried as she held the flowers quickly over her head to avoid smashing them into a large metal postal service box.

"I told you it was a surprise, yeah? I'm not gonna ruin it!" he grinned cheekily over his shoulder at her, snickering like a child. Yume began to smile at his adorable childishness, when motion in front of them caught her attention; when she peered around his bulk to get a better look, she released a shriek of alarm.

"Naruto! Look out!" she wailed as he continued to drag her right into the path of a young paperboy on his bicycle, pedaling briskly down the sidewalk with his bag stuffed with the daily publications thumping against his side. He was shouting at them to make way, as there was scarcely enough room for him to avoid the young couple and certainly not enough time for him to stop.

"Whoa!" the boxer cried and skidded to a halt, and in a desperate effort to avoid the delivery boy, he grabbed Yume by the hips and spun around to press her up against the brick wall of a building while the bike zoomed by without so much as brushing up against him. As she felt Naruto's chest pushing up against hers, she was certain that her face had literally burst into flame- it certainly felt hot enough. Naruto was blissfully unaware of the girl's discomfort and mortification, as he just stepped back and laughed heartily while running a hand through his bright yellow hair. "That was close! I'm glad you were paying attention, Yume, or else we would've been toast!" he smiled before looking down at her. His jovial expression morphed into a mildly perplexed one. "Hey, your face is all red. Are you okay?" he asked in concern, and of course brought his face frighteningly close to her own to inspect.

"I-I'm just a little out of breath, that's all!" she squeaked, hoping that the first excuse that came to mind would be enough for him to drop the issue. "You're much taller than me, Naruto, so it's a little hard to keep up with your pace…"

"Oh!" he said with a nod, and much to her relief, straightened back up to cross his arms. "Jeez, I'm sorry. I don't think of stuff like that!" he admitted with a grin before looking down at his watch. "That little run did make up some time for us, though, so we can take it slow from here. Sorry about that," he chuckled with a shy smile, and the way his face turned pink and he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck made Yume's heart skip a beat. _He's so cute…_

As endearing as she found him, though, that little voice of doubt simply would not erase itself from her mind.

 _I can't help but think I'll break his heart._

After the harrowing incident with the paperboy, they took a much more relaxed pace down the sidewalk, pressing on towards the unknown destination. Yume was both disappointed and relieved that Naruto simply elected to walk beside her rather than hold her hand, but as much as her shameless shelf would have enjoyed it, she was also certain that her heart would explode before they ever reached the place Naruto was bringing her. After she pushed such thoughts away, she began to contemplate the nature of the date, and was so beside herself with curiosity that she felt she was going to explode anyway by the time Naruto stopped in front of a massive building. "Here we are!"

"Oh! The movie theater!" Yume realized as she recognized the gigantic entertainment center, with colorful and dramatic movie posters displayed on the outside walls and a line trailing from the box office. As the sliding glass doors opened for exiting patrons, the smell of buttery popcorn and the din of conversation drifted across the air.

"Is it too cheesy? I mean, I know a lot of guys do the movie thing, and I thought it was a good idea, you know," Naruto fretted, making her jump as his worried face abruptly dominated her vision, eclipsing pretty much all else. Trying to keep her heart from bursting, she shook her head meekly and gave him a smile.

"No. I love the movies," she reassured him, and the elated smile he gave her made her heart sing with joy.

"Oh, great! This is gonna be fun, then! Believe it!" he snickered and led her over to the line so that they could purchase their tickets. When they made it to the box office, Yume, out of habit, reached into her purse to retrieve her wallet and was startled greatly when Naruto shoved a hand into her face. _What is it with him and his lack of appreciation for personal space?_ She thought wildly as she glanced up at him in bewilderment. "No way! _I_ am buying," he insisted and puffed out his chest like an animal trying to assert its dominance. It just made him look funny, so naturally Yume giggled. "Hey! It's not funny!" he whined and deflated like a popped balloon.

"I'm sorry. You just look so cute when you act all tough like that," she mused. She half-expected for that comment to bruise his ego, but he brightened and grinned at her instead.

"Really? You think I'm cute?" he asked bashfully with that adorable blush of his, causing her to once more giggle at his display of cuteness before nodding in confirmation. "Hehe, she thinks I'm _cuuuute,"_ he bragged to the completely disinterested ticket salesman.

"That's great, dude. Two tickets for what?" he sighed and propped his cheek in his hand with the most bored expression Yume had ever seen on a person.

"Oh! Right! Uh, two tickets for The Legend of Princess Gale, please!" Naruto sputtered hastily, and when the price rang up, he fished in his pocket for a few minutes to retrieve his money. Yume's heart cringed when she noticed him painstakingly counting every penny. _He's literally spending everything he has on me,_ she thought guiltily while he handed over the crumpled bills and dirty coins. Naruto was all smiles as he received their tickets, and was completely oblivious to Yume's mute guilt as he led her inside. "Ooh! That popcorn smells great, doesn't it?" he sighed happily as he breathed in the movie theater air, and Yume felt even worse when Naruto discreetly patted his pockets to see how much money he had. "Too bad we don't have time to get any," he laughed, but through his cheerful demeanor, Yume could see the underlying stress.

"Naruto? Do you want some popcorn?" Yume asked quietly, and perhaps her serious tone of voice threw him off. He immediately went pink, avoiding her gaze as he shuffled his feet awkwardly.

"N-no. I don't even really like the stuff," he lied blatantly, then meekly continued, "Wh-why? Do you?"

"You aren't slick, you know. You're strapped for cash, aren't you?" she asked bluntly, and he was silent for a moment, probably considering trying to brush off her suspicions, before he groaned and hung his head miserably.

"Yeah. Since I'm such a newbie, Kakashi- my trainer- hasn't been able to land me any fights yet. I quit my job and everything to do boxing, so I guess you could say I'm a little hard-up," he admitted glumly. As he stood there, slumped over and openly laying his problems bare, Yume was so moved by his generosity and commitment to her that tears actually rose to the corners of her eyes. _He's broke… But he still bought me these lovely flowers, and took me to the movies, and was even going to buy food for_ me she thought as her heart swelled. Though her fears still screamed strongly in the back of her mind, she reached up to gently lift Naruto's face before leaning in and kissing him softly on the cheek.

"Let me get some, okay?" she told him gently and walked over to the concessions line, and he was so stunned that he didn't even object, just followed her like an obedient puppy with his blue eyes wide as saucers.

He was his old self again by the time they plopped down in their seats, butter already coating his mouth as he shoveled the puffy popped kernels into his mouth by the handful.

"Oh, man! This is the best!" he grinned at her, his cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk's from all the popcorn in his mouth. He blinked when Yume just erupted into a fit of hysterical laughter, then shrugged and swallowed all of it in one go. "Ahh. That's the stuff," he sighed in contentment. When Yume finally got her giggles under control, she casually ate from her own, smaller bag of popcorn.

"So, Naruto? Isn't The Legend of Princess Gale an old kid's movie?" she asked as she looked at the blank screen.

"Yeah!" he nodded happily. "I used to watch it all the time as a kid. They're playing it on the big screen as a special promotion for its fifteenth anniversary. I thought it would be perfect!" he told her elatedly. _He's so enthusiastic about everything,_ she thought with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Something about being with the energetic, optimistic man put all her fears to rest and made it seem, if only for the moment, that things would work out.

Naruto snickered excitedly and leaned forward in his seat as the theater suddenly darkened, and the blank screen suddenly came alive with color. Traditional Japanese instrumental music began to play over the speakers as a beautiful medieval-era landscape slowly zoomed into view, with a magnificent castle surrounded by a lively town the centerpiece. The scene flipped to a beautiful woman in an elegant kimono standing on a terrace, her black hair flowing in the wind as she stared out at the sky. "That's Princess Gale!" Naruto hissed eagerly to her, and though Yume could discern the obvious, she didn't want to ruin his fun.

As the movie went on, Yume could appreciate why Naruto enjoyed it so much. The lead actress was stunning, as were the supporting cast, and the cinematography was beautiful, especially for its time. She found herself completely invested, so much so that she didn't notice what Naruto was doing until she felt his arm slide casually around her shoulder. She immediately stiffened, peering at him through her peripheral vision; he was completely relaxed, staring fixedly at the screen, but in the gloom she could see the smirk playing across his lips. _Why, you slick…_ she thought as a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Though it had surprised her, it _did_ feel very nice, and she soon relaxed into the arm hanging around her shoulders. It almost made her feel safe, like the terrors that she faced in the outside world could not touch her so long as she remained in the barrier that was Naruto's embrace.

She knew that wasn't true, though.

 _Obito expects his money soon. I've been working so hard, but between rent and everything, I'm still coming up short… He would never directly hurt me, since he won't get his money that way, but he could send someone after Tsunade- though that will probably end up badly for the thug, not her. But what if he finds out about Naruto? He's a boxer, sure, but can he defend himself against a street thug like Obito?_ She worried, and the more she thought about it, the more guilty she felt for continuing to see him. _Tsunade said I shouldn't worry and I should just live in the present… But it isn't just_ _ **my**_ _future at stake. Oh, Naruto…_ she thought miserably and looked up at him, and when she did, he gave her that same elated smile; rather than cheer her, though, it just ripped a hole into her heart. _Maybe I should break it off._ As she thought so, she felt something rustle in her lap, and she glanced down to see the bouquet of flowers. She had quite forgotten they were there. Saddened, she brought them to her nose and breathed in deeply, their aroma seemingly spreading through her entire body. _I don't want to, though… I'm so selfish,_ she moped.

Because of her intrusive doubts, Yume could barely focus on the rest of the movie. She was like a zombie as Naruto walked her out of the theater. He, on the other hand, was practically raving good reviews.

"Man! It was better than I remember! There's nothing like seeing a classic on the big screen, am I right, Yume?" he asked cheerfully, and when she did not answer, he poked her in the arm. "Yume?"

"Oh! Yes. Yes, you're right," she answered quickly, flushing with embarrassment and shame. She could not meet his concerned gaze, and turned her face away every time he shifted his angle to try and meet her eyes.

"Hey. You're acting funny. Did you not like it?" he asked with a disappointed look, worried that he has messed up.

"No! I loved it!" she cried hurriedly, then sighed deeply. "I just have a lot on my mind…"

"Is someone bothering you again?" he asked sternly, his nostrils flaring. "'Cuz if they are, I'll take care of 'em! Believe it!" Despite her melancholy mood, his brazen hot-headedness made her chuckle.

"No, Naruto, no one is bothering me. It's just life problems. I'll be okay," she smiled and finally looked up at him. She was truly unconvinced of that fact, but she _wanted_ it to be true. Feeling cheeky, she reached out and slipped her hand into Naruto's, curling her finger tightly around his own. _I want it to be okay._ Surprised, he looked down at their gripped hands, then smiled brightly up at her. _I want to believe in us._ "Would you care to walk me home?"

"Believe it!" he nodded with that cheeky grin still on his face, as he was so elated that all he could do was smile triumphantly. Positively glowing with happiness, he led her away from the theater back down the sidewalk, chattering happily about his favorite childhood movie.

 _Naruto… Could you smile at me like that if you knew the truth?_

 _Who I_ _ **really**_ _am?_


	10. Chapter 9: A Fight For Dreams!

The boxing gloves hung loosely around Naruto's neck as he sat on the bench, staring down at the ground as he tapped his foot at impossible speeds to channel his nervous energy. In one of his ears, an earbud was blasting hip-hop music at top volume, his feeble attempt to cool himself down, but all his mind was bent on the sounds drifting in the other; floating in from the slightly ajar down was the elated , powerful voice of the announcer, hyping up the crowd before the big event. The room was dark, too. He had turned the lights off after Kakashi had exited the room following a final pep talk, because Naruto strangely found solace in the crushing blackness. The only light came from the open door, and the phone screen that he was staring at as if his life depended on it.

 _5 Days Ago:_

 _ **Hey, Yume! My big fight is this weekend- do you think you can come? It's in the Konoha Coliseum, Saturday at 7! It would mean a lot to me if you would be there!**_

 _3 Days Ago:_

 _ **Hey, Yume. I know you've been busy with work lately. I just wanted to know if you were coming to the fight or not.**_

 _Yesterday:_

 _ **Hey, Yume… Just wanted to check in again. My fight is tomorrow… Are you going to be there?**_

 _Today at 3:21 p.m.:_

 _ **I haven't heard from you all week. I don't wanna be bothersome. Just wanted to remind you that my fight is tonight.**_

 _Today at 5:47 p.m.:_

 _ **Hey, Yume. I don't know if you've read these messages or not. I just wanted to tell you that I hope things are okay. I'll stop by the bar soon. I've been training so much! Kakashi is a slave driver! I'm gonna come with a win, okay?**_

 _Five minutes ago:_

 _ **It's almost time. I hope you're in the crowd, but if not, keep working hard, okay?**_

 _One minute ago:_

 _ **I'm sorry I keep bugging you. I have to go soon… Good luck with whatever you're doing, Yume.**_

With an aggravated sigh, Naruto switched off the phone screen and placed it upside-down on the metal bench, placing his head in his hands. _Why won't she answer me? Things were going so well, I thought. Am I overthinking it?_ Before he had more time to ponder the question, light suddenly flooded into the room as the metal door was pushed open. Naruto lifted his head, weary from all the fretting, to be greeted by his silver-haired mentor.

"It's time."

Naruto exhaled deeply, closing his eyes to force everything from his mind. It was the moment he had been training for, the moment that would determine everything from this point on; he needed to _focus._ A black hole formed in his mind, swallowing everything else and leaving behind only one thing: the _fight._ When his eyes snapped open, they were cool pools of flaming fire. He jumped off of the bench to stride out of the room, and down the short hall to throw open the door to the arena, with the mind only to _win._

As Naruto stepped out onto the small ramp leading down to fighting ring, all of his senses were immediately bombarded at once. Lights flashed from every angle as camera shutters flicked and excited fans waved their phone flashlights frantically in the gloom. Though it was a relatively small fight, several news channels had showed up to broadcast, and Naruto was greeted by several rolling cameras as he strode confidently down the ramp. The excited screams were deafening, but within the cacophony you could hear the audience chanting his name. Last season he had acquired a sizable fanbase, largely from the slums, but a good chunk of the middle class also championed for the blonde boy from the other side of the tracks; the air was thick with the smell of sweat mingling with the various food items from the concessions stands just outside the domed room. Naruto's skin tingled with electricity as he drank in all the sights, all the sounds; he was purely exhilarated, and it was what he _lived_ for.

"Returning for his second season in the ring is fan-favorite Naruto Uzumaki!" As the announcer's voice boomed overhead, Naruto grinned widely and threw up his arms to give a few quick sample punches for the camera, and the crowd went so wild that it actually drowned out the man's words for a few seconds. "- an average season, can Konoha City's so-called 'Golden Boy' measure up this go-around to advance to the International Tournament this year?"

"As I recall he faced quite a crushing defeat in the qualifying rounds for Regionals last year, is that correct?"

"That's right, partner. But look at that grin! Uzumaki sure has confidence on his side!" It was true enough; even as they rattled about his mediocre performance the year prior, Naruto was all-smiles as he vaulted himself into the ring and waited for his opponent's announcement. _It's gonna be different this year! Believe it! I'm going to the top!_ He thought triumphantly.

He only wished that Yume was there to see it.

"Ah, and here comes our other contender for the evening! Give it up for 'The Human Boulder,' Choji Akimichi!" the announcer cried into the microphone, and it sounded like a bomb went off in the building with how forcefully the crowd erupted into cheers. Naruto watched on the giant flat-screen monitor overhead as the camera panned to the newcomer, who looked to the blonde boy like he had indulged in a little too much barbecue. As the announcer rattled off his stats, the man with wild brown hair was finishing off a tray of hot wings from the concession stand while his coach looked on with a mixture of concern and exhaustion. _Seriously? This is what Kakashi puts me up against? Gimme a break!_ He whines internally as Choji paraded down the ramp. When the large man jumped into the ring, however, the structure actually _rocked,_ and Naruto hastily cast aside all presumptions lest he find himself knocked out in the first ten seconds.

"All right, Naruto. Focus. This is what you've trained for," Kakashi called from the sidelines. Sneering, Naruto grabbed his boxing gloves and untied them from his neck to strap them to his hands.

"Believe it! You're going down, Tubby!" he jeered at Choji, his voice sounded distorted through the rubber guard clenched between his teeth, but he heard it well enough. As the man's face grew as red as a tomato and his teeth clenched together with a grating sound, even _with_ a mouth guard Naruto gulped, realizing that he has said the _wrong_ thing.

"I'm not fat, I'm just a little Chubby, _**okaaaaaaay?!**_ " the man roared, and no sooner had the bell rang to signal the initiation of the fight had Choji fallen upon Naruto in a fierce rage. Crying out in a panic, Naruto hastily threw up hands to defend himself from the torrential rain of blows that the large man delivered to him astonishing speed, screaming all the while. With every hit, every bone in his bone vibrated with a tune, and it made Naruto feels like Choji was playing him like some kind of grisly instrument. _I gotta do something, quick!_ He thought as his teeth chattered in his skull. In a fraction of a second that Choji was pulling his fist back, Naruto darted to the side, and the man's fist only met open air. He had swung with such force that he lost his balance, and wobbled precariously trying to regain his footing. Like a cobra striking its prey, Naruto jabbed him in the side, sending a ripple through the man's belly. _And he says he's not fat?!_ He thought incredulously as he pranced back to avoid a counterattack. He was in the game now, hopping lightly from foot to foot as he anticipated his opponent's next move.

"That huuuuurt!" Choji roared as he whipped around, steam practically shooting out of his nostrils as he regarded Naruto with pure rage.

"Whoa!" Naruto cried as the man charged him like a bull would a matador, and he leaped out of the way, sending Choji careening into the nylon ropes binding the boxing ring. Naruto jumped in for another flurry of blows, but the outer layer of fat absorbed the shock and prevented him from doing much damage. "Damn! I can't get through!" he exclaimed in annoyance as he hopped back, narrowly avoiding a vicious swipe to his belly. It was in that moment that the bell rang to signal the end of the round, and a momentary break. Naruto flopped into the chair in his corner of the ring, downing the bottle of water that Kakashi handed him in almost three gulps. He crumpled the plastic bottle in his hand and tossed it aside, staring hard at Choji as his mentor whispered fervently to him. "He's too thick! It's like punching Jell-O!" he growled to Kakashi in annoyance.

"You're gonna have to go for his head," Kakashi told him quietly as he watched Choji with calculating eyes. Naruto nodded, formulating a plan of action in his mind. "Is your head in the game?" Kakashi asked suddenly.

"Do what?"

"You're off. You don't even realize it, do you? You're _slow,"_ he accused, and Naruto scrunched up his face in confusion, unsure what the silver-haired man was even talking about. However, before he could elaborate, the bell rang and Naruto was back on stage. His mind whirling as he tried to figure out what his teacher could be insinuating, he stuffed his mouth guard back in and glanced out at the crowd while he waited for the bell to sound. _I wonder if Mom and Dad ended up making it. They normally tell me when I do, but Dad kept dodging the question. Kiba had to work and Shikamaru was hung over. Sasuke had a night shift and Sakura had to stay home with Sarada- and Yume…_ He was so lost in thought that he didn't hear the bell sound, and was completely defenseless as Choji's glove fist slammed into his face.

The crowd rang with a resounding " _Oooooh!"_ as Naruto legitimately spun around at the force of the blow, and he could feel his lip already swelling. He staggered to the rope, clutching it as his head rang like a gong, and then received an equally violent punch to his rib. He coughed as he felt the bone crack under the pressure, and he whipped around to put up some kind of pathetic defense as Choji went for his face again; it was a farce, and Naruto doubled over as all the breath was forced from his lungs as he was sucker-punched in the gut. Tears stinging his eyes, he stared at the padded mat that was the floor, until a red glove flashed in his vision. Naruto felt the impact to his jaw in every bone in his bone; his skull rocked with the force, and if it hadn't been for his mouth guard his teeth would have shattered into dust. Naruto's feet actually left the floor, and then he crashed down on his back, his vision spotted as he reeled in the wake of the tremendous uppercut. He could barely register the referee down on his knees next to him, slowly counting down to ten. _Get up, loser,_ he thought weakly to himself, and with an agonized groan, he sat up and slowly dragged himself to his feet before the referee could finish counting. Naruto raised his arms, panting as he tried to square his mind back into the fight, but the damage had been done; he barely made it out of the round conscious. As he staggered into his chair, spitting out blood with his mouth guard, he looked at Kakashi through a rapidly swelling eye.

"What the hell did I tell you? Get your _head_ in the _game,_ Naruto," the coach snapped.

"No one is here for me," he mumbled in exhausted delirium. He had figured it out after all. No one had come to watch him fight. _No one._ So what was he doing it for?

"You idiot. _Everyone_ is here for you," Kakashi snapped, and his one good eye widened in shock. "So what if they can't physically be here? All across town, people are tuned into the radio, or standing in front of electronics shops, watching you get your _ass handed to you._ And even more, those who can't even do that have you in their thoughts, and are counting on you to win. _They are all here,"_ he told him firmly, jabbing him in the middle of the chest. Naruto blinked, sobered by the scathing rebuke. How could he have been so stupid? He knew that everyone he knew had him in their minds tonight. His mother and father, his friends, all the old people in his neighborhood and their kids and their grandkids, the old man at Ichiraku and his pretty granddaughter that helped out in the shop- even Tsunade had promised to air the fight in her bar. Yume, even, _had_ to be thinking of him. As the bell rang to signal the third round, Naruto's eyes were blazing with an even fiercer determination that before. He stuffed his mouth guard back in, shaking like a mutt to dislodge the sweat bead sticking to his hair and skin.

 _I have to win… for_ _ **everyone!**_

This time, it was _Naruto_ who struck first as soon as the bell chimed, falling on Choji with a flurry of blows. Choji's beady, dark eyes widened with shock as Naruto's personality seemingly did a one-eighty. Naruto pranced around like a hopping kangaroo, appearing one moment only to vanish and reappear the next, striking here and there. Soon, Choji was struggling to keep up, falling prey to more and more of Naruto's ruthless jabs.

"It's like there are _ten_ of you!" he wailed in dismay, then choked on his words as Naruto socked him in the side of the jaw.

"Didn't you know I can make clones?" Naruto joked as he flashed to Choji's other side while the man raised a fist to defend himself where Naruto had just struck, slamming his fist into the other side of his face with enough force to make it snap to the side. The large man reeled, eyes rolling in his head and his arms falling to his side as he barely clung to the waking world, and Naruto went in for the kill. "Believe it! This is for home, suckers!" he shouted as he performed the same devastating uppercut that he had received twice now, once from his father and once in this very fight. Choji let out an " _Uwumph!"_ as his head snapped back, and he hung in the air for a moment as if supported by invisible strings; then, slowly, he tipped backwards and collapsed on his back with a tremendous _thwomp!_ Naruto stood over his opponent, panting heavily, as the referee counted down. When the man called the tenth second and slammed his fist to the mat, Naruto grinned toothily and threw his hands in the air, relishing the crowd's deafening screams.

"What a comeback, folks! I can't believe it! Konoha City's 'Golden Boy' has entered the season with a tremendous bang!" the announcer shouted, but Naruto wasn't listening to _him._ His eyes were closed, listening to the crowd chant his name over and over. _NA-RU-TO! NA-RU-TO! NA-RU-TO!_ Among them, he could imagine their voices: his sweet mother's and his proud father's, Shikamaru's low, lazy drawl with Kiba's roguish yell, Akamaru's bark, Ino's girlish squeal and Sakura's elated " _Chaaaaaa!",_ and even little Sarada's high-pitched baby talk- and Yume, beautiful Yume with her voice like the purest honey, calling his name.

After the fight, Naruto approached Choji, who was sitting on the bench with a towel around his broad shoulders, and held out his hand. "Sorry I called you 'Tubby' at the beginning of the match. It was uncalled for. It was a great fight," he smiled brightly at him. Choji looked up with surprised eyes, then smiled softly and took the offered hand to shake it graciously.

"Thanks. I had to admit, you are quite the tricky guy. That clone move of yours is a knockout," he chuckled. Naruto blinked in shock, then blushed.

"That? That was a joke!" he cried, and Choji's entire bulky frame shook as he bellowed with laughter.

"Is that so? I say you make it your signature. Everyone has one, right?" he grinned and winked at him, making Naruto smile cheekily. "Thanks for a good fight. It certainly was a way to go out."

"Eh? What does that mean?"

"Well, I've been thinking. I've been doing this half my life, and, well… It doesn't make me happy," he admitted with an apprehensive glance at his coach, who was fervently talking to Kakashi. "I did it to make my old man happy, but it's his dream, not mine, you know? I've been thinking that maybe I should give it up." He looked back at Naruto with a grateful smile. "This fight was a sign. I need to follow my dream!" Naruto was a little confused as to how him clobbering the guy had triggered such a revelation, but he was all for dreams.

"You should go for it! Believe it! I tell ya what- let's _both_ follow our dreams, and when I'm an international champion and you've done whatever you wanna do, we meet up for drinks, yeah? I got some friends that you would totally fit in with!" he grinned happily. Choji got that surprised look on his face once more, then laughed and stood up to clap Naruto on the shoulder.

"It's a deal! You'd better not lose, got it?" he grinned and flashed him a thumbs-up before walking over to his trainer to take his leave. Naruto watched him go with a smile on his face, glad that he had been the instrument in someone following their dream.

When he returned to his locker room, he found that his phone was vibrating incessantly with congratulatory messages.

Not a single one was from Yume.

Ignoring the others for know, he pulled up her contact information, staring at the chain of messages she had ignored, and then began to type.

 _ **I won my fight today. It was kinda weird. The guy I fought? He said that he was gonna give up boxing to follow his dream- whatever that is. It kinda made me think of us, both following our dreams even though it's tough. I don't know what you're doing right now, but I hope you're happy, at least.**_

 _ **I just wanted you to know, it's because of you that I won at all. Thank you, Yume.**_

With a quiet sigh, he flipped the phone screen off and turned back to the door to see Kakashi standing there with his arms crossed and a knowing smile on his face.

"Good job, Naruto."

"Save it," he grinned, mostly to himself. "I've still got a long way to go before I make my dream come true!"

 _We both do, huh, Yume?_


	11. Chapter 10: Yume's Lament

Yume's heart hammered in her throat as she darted frantically into the living room, grabbing the couch cushions and violently tearing them from the couch. She flung them across the room as she got down on her knees and began shoving her hand underneath the back of the couch to search for any stray dollars or coins that the furniture could contain. She only managed to procure on bedraggled dollar bill and a twenty-five cent coin, and as she looked around the room in a panic she felt frustrated and fearful tears rising to the corners of her eyes. With a strangled whimper, she shot up to run into the kitchen, grabbing the handle of their junk drawer to drastically rifle through the contents. When it yielded nothing, she slammed it shut with a scream, the tears now streaming freely down her cheeks. Defeated, she trudged back down the hallway to her bedroom, where stacks of tens, twenties, fives, and ones all lay neatly on her bed. She added her meager find to the piles with a sniffle, trembling as she realized that her payment to Obito would be twenty dollars short.

Suddenly, an idea hatched in her mind, and she walked out of the bedroom to scamper down the hall to her suitemate's bedroom. Hinata was out doing research for a novel and was not due back for another few hours. The door was cracked, and a lump was in her throat as she slowly pushed the door open. The _creeeeeaaaaaak_ of the door as it opened made her stomach knot up in guilt, and she hesitated in the doorway as she stared hard at the glass vase on Hinata's desk that was half-filled with dollar bills and coins. She wanted to steal it. Oh, how she wanted to. _Surely, Hinata would understand, right? She's my friend,_ the little demon chimed inside of her. _She worked hard for that money. It's wrong. This us your problem!_ Insisted the good half of her. After a heated mental argument, the angel won out, and Yume felt disgusted that she would even consider stealing money from her devoted friend. Sickened, she replaced the door to her original position and returned to her bedroom, looking forlornly at the stack of money that she had worked herself to the bone to procure.

The money that she was going to turn over to a malicious mob boss at any moment.

 _I tried so hard, but it still wasn't enough._ Yume had been forced to pick up a waitressing job at the bar to survive. When she wasn't singing, she was criss-crossing the floor, delivering drinks to a myriad of drunks ranging from foul-mouthed to smooth-talking. She was averaging around eighty hours a week, but still hadn't managed to scrape up enough to pay all her bills and the ruthless loan shark. Frustrated, Yume sank down onto the floor with a miserable sob. Naruto had been texting her all week, but she was too busy and too ashamed to respond. She had been working on the night of his fight, and had begged Tsunade to play the match in her bar so she could watch; thankfully, the woman agreed, and the patrons even enjoyed the major upset that Konoha City's Golden Boy had provided. She had been so overjoyed as she watched him knock Choji flat on his back, but it had been overshadowed by the painful sting of guilt. She should have _been_ there.

 _He probably thinks that I'm avoiding him,_ she moped as she glanced over at her cell phone, which was currently sitting on the floor a few feet away. She had dropped it in a frenzy when she had counted her money and discovered she was short. She had thought about texting him so many times, but her life was spiraling so out of control that she felt bad dragging him into such an obvious shit-show. As time went on, it got to the point that no matter if she texted him, she would look like the bad guy; nothing could make it better now. So, she went on in silence, hating herself and her stupid life decisions that deprived her the luxury of living life.

She jumped violently when a loud rapping on the front door boomed through the house. Her heart jumped back into her throat, and she nearly choked on it as she stiffly rose from the floor to gather her payment with violently trembling hands and shuffle down the hallway towards the front of the apartment. She jumped once more as the knocking resounded again, more insistently this time, and she hastily scurried to the front door lest the collector kick it down next. When she opened the door, she was screaming inside, but she tried not to let the fear show in her expression; she painted a calm visage as she straightened up to greet the man standing in the doorway, the man who scared her nearly more than anything else in the world.

"Good evening, Yume," Obito smiled languidly at her. As usual, he was well-dressed, but there was a bit of casualness to him tonight; his black suit jacket was open to reveal an untucked light blue dress shirt, and his tie was only loosely done. He wasn't wearing a hat tonight, allowing black hair that was u kept to flow free over his ears and across his eyes. He wasted no time with formalities, but just held his hand out demandingly. Yume thought her heart would burst out of her chest as she handed the money over. Their fingers brushed together, and for a moment she was terrified that he would feel her shaking ever so slightly, but he just snatched his hand back to begun thumbing through the bills. _Maybe I miscounted. I counted five times, but maybe I was just so out of sorts that I was wrong,_ she hoped beyond hope as she anxiously watched him count the money.

Her hope was not strong enough.

"You're short." His voice was calm, but the underlying tone was as sharp as a knife, and his eyes were harder than iron as they flicked up to meet her own blue eyes swimming with terror. For a moment, she was too terrified to speak, and in that moment of hesitation he had drawn a pistol and was pointing it right in her face. "You assured me that you would do better, Yume," he sighed. He sounded so sad, so disappointed in her, but she knew it was just an act to make her scared. He loved seeing her scared, the sadist.

"I'm sorry," she squeaked. She felt like an antelope under the intense gaze of a lion. Her knees were knocking together as she stared down the barrel of the gun, and she was nearly hyperventilating; tears had begun to flow once more, even though she knew that Obito didn't take mercy on a sobbing woman. "I'm sorry. I promise, I'll make it up in the next payment. The interest is just so-"

"Shut up," he snarled and shoved the barrel of the gun into her mouth, and she actually gagged as it hit the back of her throat. Unable to speak, she just stood there quaking, as he regarded her with pure rage. _He's really going to kill me!_ She thought in horror as she watched him set the finger on the trigger. Most women would squeeze their eyes shut with a muffle scream, but she just gazed up at him, meeting his eyes. She was scared, so scared, but somehow she found the strength to throw some defiance in with that fear.

By some saving grace, Obito liked that.

"Guh!" she coughed as he pulled the gun from her mouth, and she wrapped her hands around her throat as she hacked, disgusted by the taste of cold metal still stinging in her mouth. His mouth had curled upwards into a smirk, and she was too busy coughing to notice that he had closed some of the distance between them. When she looked up, he was leaning over her, his hand resting on the doorframe with his face mere inches from hers. He tucked the pistol back into his waistband, then gently used a finger the lift up her face so that their eyes met again.

"I don't like excuses," he whispered softly, and for those who didn't know any better, he would seem like a man speaking seductively to his lover. Yume knew better, though; beneath that suave, sexy purr was pure hostility. "… You look tired," he remarked, his hand traveling up to her cheek so he could gently run his thumb across the dark circles underneath her fearful eyes. "I've had you working too hard. I can't ruin your pretty face," he mused. Yume remained rigid as he continuously stroked her face, her bottom lip quivering as she struggled to remain calm. When he got this way, she never knew what he was going to do; it was better to let him talk it out, and if the worst happened, then she would attempt to talk some sense into the power-drunken man. He cocked his head to the side slightly as he moved his hand so that his fingers slid into her frazzled hair, a smug smirk playing across his lips. "And your beautiful hair… You haven't washed it in days, have you, Yume?" he tutted.

"Three," she answered meekly.

"Three," he echoed thoughtfully. A shiver travelled up her spine as he rhythmically ran his fingers through her dirty, unkempt hair, teasing the strands apart like a brush. He continued to gaze down at her, gears turning in his head, before he smiled magnanimously. "All right, Yume. I'll reduce your interest to ten percent, and I'll lower your payments by two hundred dollars," he conceded, and Yume felt all the breath leave her body at once as relief flooded through her. Before she could relax, however, he grabbed a fistful of her hair and jerked her head back, bringing his face frighteningly close. "However, if you are late or short next payment, I'll make you pay me another way," he growled, his eyes flicking downward to illustrate exactly what he was insinuating. He held her there for a moment, stiff with her hands on Obito's chest in a weak attempt to stave him off, before abruptly releasing her and whipping around to stomp down the steps. When he vanished around the corner, Yume melted down onto the threshold, sobbing bitterly in relief and fear. As her body finally relaxed, her muscles were sore from how tightly they had been clenched.

"Oh, God," she whimpered as she wrapped her arms around herself. She felt like she had just bargained with Death himself. Really, she pretty much had.

After a few minutes of crying pathetically, Yume composed herself and walked back into the apartment, dead-bolting the door behind her to provide some measure of security for herself. She walked back to her room and shakily ran her hands through her hair, exhaling deeply as she decided that it was imperative she take a shower. As she was rummaging through her vanity for some pajamas, she jumped when her phone suddenly blazed to life; a pop song blasted from the speakers, indicating that she was being called. She plucked her phone off the floor and frowned when it was an unfamiliar number, and she swiped to answer and timidly said, "Hello?"

" _Yume! What the hell were you thinking, running off like that? Do you know what you have done to your father's reputation? To your fiancé's reputation? Where are you? You had better tell me, young lady! No any in hell that my daughter is going to make a living as some coke-smoking, show-business crack whore fucking everyone and everyth-"_

" _ **Don't fucking call me ever again!"**_ Yume screeched back and angrily ended the call, then blocked the number. Screaming in unbridled frustration, she slammed the phone down into her bed and paced around the room, pulling at her hair as she tried to dissipate the nervous energy churning inside of her. It had been a horrible day, and somehow it had gotten disgustingly worse. With another scream, she punted a shoe across the room, and it slammed into the wall and stuck there, embedded in the drywall with how hard she had thrown it. This just made her even angrier, because she would have to pay for that later. Her anger rapidly diffused into acute misery, and she flopped face-first into her bed with a sob. _Why? What did I do to deserve this? I just wanted to sing…_ she moped. She turned her head as her phone chimed, indicating she had a message, and her heart constricted as Naruto's name flashed on the screen. She stared hard at it, then grabbed the phone and rolled onto her back, opening up the message.

 _ **Hey, Yume. I came to the bar last night after the fight, but you weren't there. Are you okay?**_

Yume's fingers hesitated over the keyboard, debating where or not to reply. As she thought about her terrible day, her terrible week, her terrible month, and her terrible life, she realized a simple fact: she just wanted Naruto to hold her in his arms and tell her it was okay.

 _ **I had already gone home. I watched your fight. It was amazing! I wish I could have been there, but I picked up a second job to make ends meet… That's why I haven't texted you lately. I'm sorry.**_

She closed the message app with a small sigh and set it face-down on her chest, staring up at the ceiling and unsure how to feel. _I did it. I actually messaged him._ She knew that he was much too good for her. She knew that she didn't deserve him. She knew that she was stringing him along, because there was no way that he would stick around when he learned what a fuck-up she was.

She knew that, but yet she could not help but get excited when her phone buzzed again.

 _ **Phew! Okay. I was getting worried. But you saw?! It was a great fight, wasn't it?**_ A string of messages appeared on her screen, but she ignored them, tapping his contact icon in the corner and hitting the "call" button. She held it up to her ear and listened to the dial tone, until the clicking in her ear indicated that he had picked up.

" _Yume? What's up?"_ Naruto's confused voice asked on the other line.

"I just wanted to hear your voice," she admitted quietly. Perhaps it was the guilt, or perhaps it was just the sound of his kind, happy voice, but silent tears rolled down her cheeks. "I wanted to talk to you…" Stunned, he was silent for a moment.

" _Oh. Okay."_

"I… I really appreciated what you said about the fight," she blushed awkwardly. He had told her that he won because of her. It had made her so elated, but ashamed, too. "I'm so sorry that I couldn't be there…" she repeated again.

" _Don't sweat it. Tsunade told me that you've been having it rough. Waitressing and singing? Are you sure you aren't pushing yourself too hard?"_

"Heh… Maybe I am. I have to make ends meet, though, you know?" she sighed, smiling happily at his level of concern for her welfare. "I think next month will be a bit easier for me, though…" Obito's face flashed in her mind for a moment, a painful reminder that she couldn't take if _too_ easy. She chewed on the inside of her cheek, a question dancing on her tongue, but she dare not ask it. Naruto asked it first.

" _So, you wanna go out next weekend?"_ She bit down hard on the inside of her mouth, nearly hard enough to draw blood. She knew she would refuse. She knew that she shouldn't continue to string him along. She knew that, but she was just too selfish to refuse.

"Yes. I would really like that, Naruto."

They made the necessary plans and talked about the boxer's glorious fight and the celebration after until late into the night, and when they finally parted ways, Yume dropped her phone down onto the mattress and sighed deeply, reaching up to lay her arm over her closed eyes. _Am I really stringing him along?_ She wondered. Maybe her selfish, sick self fully intended to make this work. As she thought that, the way her heart leaped when his cute smile and bright blue eyes and lovably messy blonde hair flashed into her mind confirmed a frightening and joyful fact: Yume was undoubtedly falling in love with Naruto.

The question was, what would that love lead to- happiness, or crushing remorse?


	12. Chapter 11: A Friendly Game

As Kiba whipped the car around to park on the curb in front of Yume's apartment, Naruto peered in the car window and used his reflection to try to wrangle his wild blonde hair into submission. To his disappointment, the stubborn strands refused to obey and insisted on sticking up in every direction, so he decided to conceal it beneath a baseball cap. He twisted it backwards, allowing a little bit of his fluffy hair to stick out. It completed his look, really; he was wearing a pair of old sneakers, some old joggers with holes in the knees, and a dirt-stained baseball jersey with one of the numbers peeled off. To anyone else, it looked like maybe he forgot to do laundry, but that wasn't the case; today was the day of their biweekly baseball game.

Every two weeks since Naruto, Shikamaru, and Kiba were children, they and the other neighborhood children had gathered at an empty field in their neighborhood to play baseball. Though many of the faces had changed over the years, coming and going, it was a tradition they had vehemently adhered to. It was something that Naruto enjoyed thoroughly, and so in lieu of their third date he had decided to invite his girlfriend and her roommate to participate. To his elation, she had been quite excited at the prospect.

 _I'm no good at sports, but it sounds like a lot of fun!_ She had laughed, holding her hand over her mouth like the prim, proper lady she was. Naruto loved the way she laughed; it was such a sweet sound, and her raven hair would swish slightly as her shoulders shook, and her face would scrunch up just enough for her eyes to close and her cheeks to turn pink. For a minute, he fantasized about the gorgeous woman, practically drooling- that is, until Kiba leaned over the center console to shove him in the shoulder.

"Oi, are you gonna get these girls or not?" With a start, he threw to car door open and scrambled out onto the sidewalk, jogging over the concrete and taking the metal steps two stairs at a time. He knocked loudly on the front door, shifting his hat around to make sure it was straight, but immediately melted as he heard his girlfriend's sweet voice drifting from beyond the wood.

"Coming!" A dreamy smile found its way onto his lips and his shoulders sagged as he reveled her sing-song voice. _She even_ _ **sounds**_ _beautiful,_ he thought with a small sigh. He abandoned himself for a moment, the image of the woman dancing in his mind once more; when the door abruptly swung open, he jumped violently before attempting to look somewhat dignified. That all melted away as she smiled up at him and chirped, "Hey, Naruto! How do I look?"

All that came out of his mouth was senseless babble. Her raven hair was bunched up at the top of her head in a messy bun, held only by a thick black scrunchie. A pair of black yoga pants hugged her legs, perfectly suiting her shapely thighs, and a grey sports tank top was cur low enough on the sides for Naruto to spot the pink sports bra underneath. Naruto was by no means a pervert, but something about seeing the woman in athletic gear when she was normally dressed so nice stirred something within him. _She looks so sexy!_ He thought, fingers twitching as he tried to form coherent words, and after a minute of short-circuiting he managed to choke out, "That outfit looks good on you."

"Thank you!" she beamed, a pink haze rising to her cheeks. Naruto managed to pull a lopsided smile onto his mouth, though his mind was still in dreamland and refusing to give his body orders. _I'm so lucky to have such a pretty, stylish girlfriend…_ He continued to just stand there, gawking in awe at the beautiful woman, until Kiba impatiently honked the horn. Jerking as he was rousted from his thoughts, he smiled sheepishly down at her and rubbed the back of his neck. It was then that he became aware of the fact that someone was hunkered down behind Yume, shyly peering over her shoulder at him with nervous, milky-blue eyes.

"Oh, is this your roommate?"

"Ah! Yes, this is Hinata!" Yume, to the girl's fright, hurriedly stepped aside so Naruto could be properly introduced to her. Hinata kept her gaze downcast, anxiously twiddling her fingers as she stammered a greeting. She was quite pretty herself, with pin-straight, bluish-black hair, a pale complexion, and a curvy body just barely hidden by the oversized tee-shirt and baggy sweatpants she was wearing. Her face was a red fire, and when Naruto twisted his head to try and meet her gaze, she squeaked and turned away, quivering. _Heh heh! She's so cute!_ He grinned.

"I'm Naruto! Nice ta meetcha!" he cried as he affectionately patted her on the head, like a man would do to a small child. She went as stiff as a board beneath his touch, her flushed face instantly turning pale, while he just glowed with delight. After a second he retracted his hand and looked down at Yume. "Okay, let's go, before Kiba jumps out the car and kicks my ass for taking so long!" he joked, and as if on cue the scruffy-haired man promptly laid on the horn for about five seconds. "I'm comin', I'm comin', jeez! Hold your horses!" he snapped as he whirled around and descended the steps, while Yume giggled behind him. As he wrenched the back door open, he stuck his head in with an irritated look. "Stop embarrassing me!"

"You do a fine enough job of that yourself, Naruto," Shikamaru snorted from the front seat. He pursed his lips in irritation, but before he could offer a stunning retort, Akamaru jumped out of the car and bowled him over in his attempt to greet the young ladies. All the air was forced from his lungs as the gigantic hound pranced on his chest and belly, tail wagging furiously as he whined for attention from the pretty women. Yume giggled as she bent down to affectionately pat him on the head.

"Nice to see you again, Akamaru." The dog's tongue lolled happily, and Naruto wriggled in discomfort as slobber drizzled all over his face.

"Ew! Ew! Knock it off, you mangy mutt!" he cried as he shoved the dog's head to the side, using his jersey to clean the disgusting goo from his face. After a minute of struggling, he managed to wrestle the dog back into the car with him situated on his lap. It wasn't preferable, considering that the dog was nearly as big as he was and incorrigibly wiggly to boot, but there was no way he was going to subject the girls to putting up with him. He peered around the dog's fluffy coat of fur as Yume slid into the middle seat beside him, and once again found himself positively entranced by her and her soft smile. Then, of course, Akamaru shifted around and shoved his behind right in his face. Kiba was cackling as he shifted the car into drive, while Naruto was spitting out tufts of tan-white fur.

They had a lot of inquiries about Hinata, naturally, and she was the center of conversation during the short commute to the field. She and Yume had attended high school together in a city about two hours away. Hinata had moved to the city after high school to pursue a writing career, and had successfully published a few short stories in literary journals. She was working on a novel, currently, and was hoping to send it off to a publisher within the next few months. Yume had moved to the city a year ago, and had called up her old friend for a favor. They had been roommates ever since. Naruto thought it was a nice story. _Life is a lot easier when you have good friends to have your back!_ He thought with a side glance to the front seats. Although they gave him a rough time, Naruto couldn't deny that he had good friends himself.

"S-so, Naruto, I heard you won your first fight. Wh-when is your next one?" Hinata asked him suddenly. Her stutter was beginning to fade, meaning that she was growing a bit more comfortable around them, which relieved him. He pushed the dog aside for a moment to stick out his head slightly, taking a minute to spit out some more hair before grinning widely at her.

"In a week! You should come. I'm gonna kick ass!"

"Damn right, Naruto! First you gotta kick ass in this game, though. I'm tired of losing to Sasuke's team!" Kiba huffed as he turned the wheel sharply. Gravel crunched beneath the tires as he pulled into the small lot adjacent to the small field. It certainly wasn't much to look at; half of the chain-linked fence had fallen, held only by a few posts as it leaned into the lot. The field had not been mowed in quite a while; the grass was probably midway up his calf, and weeds with white flowers and patches of clover were mixed in with the dry, mute green blades. Several cars were already in the lot, and many of the neighborhood guys were already out on the field dropping the bases and tossing baseballs back and forth. Naruto popped open the door to all but push the hound out of the car, groaning as he attempted to brush all of the shed hair off of him, but glanced out when he heard someone calling for him.

"Heyyyy! Naruto, hurry up! We wanna see your girlfriend!" Ino shouted from her car, parked a few yards away. Her husband, Sai, was standing next to her with a metal baseball bat propped against his shoulder and looked not the least bit interested in Naruto's love life, while Sakura was on her other side, cheering right along with her. Sasuke had managed to get the day off and was tossing a baseball for his young daughter to chase through the parking lot. At the girls' yelling, the other neighborhood hooligans began hooting and hollering and demanding Naruto show off his lovely companion. Half-embarrassed and half-amused, he climbed out of the car before turning around to hold a hand out for her. Yume was smiling shyly as she stepped onto the gravel, and immediately a chorus of wolf-whistles and raucous shouting.

"Daaaaayum, Naruto, how did you ever land yourself a hottie like that?" Ino shrieked.

"Don't be so vulgar, Ino, but you have a point. She is way out of his league," Sakura chuckled as she waved a hand at her friend.

"Yeah, I still can't believe he got the first date, let alone that she's still with him!" Kiba howled with laughter as he climbed out of the driver's seat. Naruto's shoulders were hunched up to his ears, and his head was so burning hot that you could fry an egg on it, as he ground his teeth together in irritation.

"Come on, you guys! Why ya gotta make fun of me like that?" he shouted, stomping his foot and sending gravel flying everywhere. As he sulked, Yume giggled in that girlish, proper way of hers and lifted her hand to affectionately pat him on the head.

"It's okay, Naruto. I think you're a stud!" she smiled up at him, her blue eyes shining.

" _Ha!_ You hear that, assholes? She thinks I'm a _stud!"_ he crowed proudly, puffing out his chest as he placed his hands on his hips.

"All right, Mr. Stud, enough chit-chat. You're up to bat first!" Shikamaru smirked from the trunk, which had been opened without Naruto noticing, as he poked him in the behind with one of the old metal bats. Naruto whipped around to snatch it up, propping it on his shoulder as he straightened out his baseball cap again.

"We're gonna kick ass! Believe it! Come on, ladies, it's time to get down to business!" With a dramatic flourish, he whirled the bat around in his hand to point the curved end at the overgrown field. After more substantial introductions, the group of young adults piled onto the makeshift baseball field. Sasuke set up on the pitcher's mound, chewing on a piece of gum and squinting against the sun as Naruto strode up to the batter's box. "This one's for you, Yume!" he called with a wink to her, then turned back and settled into position.

"Pretty lame to dedicate a strikeout to your woman," Sasuke snorted at him, and while his face scrunched up in annoyance, the raven-haired policeman wound up and sent the ball screaming across the field at impossible speed. Naruto squeaked and swung the bat, but due to his late reaction time, it only struck empty air while the ball crashed into the umpire's gloved hand.

" _Strike!"_

"Wipe that grin off your face, Sasuke! I'm just warming up!" he snapped as his best friend snickered on the pitching mound, and with a grumble, he once more lifted the bat up over his shoulder. _I can't believe I let him get to me like that. He's making me look so uncool!_ He thought grumpily as he waited for the second pitch. This time, he blocked out the jeering to focus on the ball, and as it once again came shooting toward him he swung that bat with all his might. It connected with a resounding _crack!_ and went shooting off into the outfield. As the other players scrambled after it, he dashed off towards the first base; by the time it landed with a _thunk_ out in the grass, he was rounding second. He glanced over his shoulder to see the outfielders grab the ball and start looking for where to throw it, but rather than try to play it safe, he kept going, pouring on speed as he made for third base. As the ball sailed over his head he dropped down into a slide, smearing dirt along the side of his pants and inching into the base seconds before the baseman caught the ball. As they called him "safe," he jumped up and sneered at the pitcher. " _Ha!_ Suck on that, Sasuke!"

"Nobody likes a show-off," he called over his shoulder before returning his attention the batter's box, where Kiba was setting up for his turn. As he turned his back to him, Naruto stuck out his tongue and him and very indiscreetly flipped him off. As he turned back to prepare himself to run again, he caught sight of Yume, smiling sweetly at him and mouthing " _Good job!"_ His mouth twitched into a smile. _Looks like my showing off worked like a charm!_

The game went along like that, full of banter and jokes- and with a lot of showing off, too. It wasn't just Naruto- the married men had their wives to show off to, after all, and Ino and Sakura were _notoriously_ competitive with each other. Despite that, though, they were all-smiles the entire time, grinning widely and they traded playful insults and did little victory dances when they pulled off good plays. Yume and Hinata were on a much more casual level, of course, and even though they were both pretty terrible at the game they still had a lot of fun. After a while, Sarada got bored of playing with her toys on the sideline and demanded to be allowed to play too, and none of them could deny a cute little girl like that; so, Naruto plopped his baseball hat on her head and helped her hold the bat while her father gently tossed the ball, and when she successfully hit it he scooped her up in his arms and took off running with her while the rest clumsily chased after the ball like it was difficult. He crossed home plate with her squealing and laughing with glee, and then he put her on his shoulders while everyone ran up to congratulate her like it was the biggest achievement in the world. After that they realized that no one had bothered to keep score. He and Sasuke squabbled for a bit over which team won, but in the end they decided on a tie. As he was walking back to the car using his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face, Yume trotted up beside him, pulling a sweat-soaked strand of hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear as she grinned breathlessly.

"That was so much fun! Right, Hinata?" Unfortunately, her friend was too busy holding her chest and wheezing to reply, doubled over while Sai stood next to her looking concerned. "As you can tell, we don't exercise much," she joked. She definitely looked exhausted, with her hair slicked to her head and her skin shining with a thin coat of perspiration. Though most people might be put off by that, Naruto thought it was _exceptionally_ sexy. He actually lost track of what she was saying because he was too busy just staring at her, amazed by how beautiful she was, until he noticed that she had a quizzical expression. "Hey, did you hear me?"

"No. I was too busy thinking about how pretty you were," he answered without thinking, and they both turned pink simultaneously as they realized what he said. Blushing darkly, he smiled shyly and ran a hand through his messy blonde hair. "Wh-what did you say?"

"I just wanted to thank you for inviting me. It means a lot that you would bring me to something like this," she repeated bashfully, swiveling back and forth slightly as she clasped her hands in front of her.

"Of course! It gives me an excuse to show off," he joked, and she let out another one of those cute giggles that he loved so much. "Besides, I want you to be a part of my life, ya know? I wanna share all kinds of things with you…" In that moment, a funny look crossed over her face, and he was mildly perplexed when she turned her face away.

"Share things, huh? Yes… That's nice…" she murmured, her voice uncharacteristically mellow. He was about to inquire about her odd reaction until she turned around to face him again, wearing a surprisingly bright expression. "Ahaha! I'm starving! What do you say we go to Ichiraku? I'm craving ramen, and Hinata has to try it!" Without waiting for an answer, she marched off to the car, leaving him very confused.

 _Did I imagine that? I could have thought for a moment that… she's hiding something from me…_


	13. Chapter 12: Secrets

_I want to share all kinds of things with you, Yume._

As she sat in the car crammed between Naruto and Hinata, Yume tried not to appear as melancholy as she was feeling. She kept her expression blank, though a deep frown was desperately attempting to pervade her features.She kept her head low as she brooded, while the other individuals in the car chattered cheerfully, seemingly oblivious to her soured mood. _Share… With me…_ Such a thing was to be expected in a relationship; they were to learn all kinds of things about each other, deeper and more personal things as time went on. Why, then, did it startle her so? It wasn't like she was unaware of such a thing. _It's because no matter what, I'm afraid to share._

Yume just had too much to hide.

 _If he learns these things about me… He won't want me._ She glanced out of the corners of her eyes at him, where he was sitting beside her with the massive hound in his lap. _He's too good for me…_ How could she possibly hold on to someone so kind, so pure, and watch herself dye his fragile heart black with bitterness and despair? She knew that she would lead him only to anguish. That was the stone that her path was made of, its destination sorrow. How could she, in good conscience, allow him to accompany her on that depressing journey, whose end was growing grimmer as time drew on? _My dream is dying while his is flourishing. I can't put his in jeopardy…_

Suddenly, she felt Naruto's hand slide around her own, gently enclosing her fingers to give them a squeeze. When she looked to him again, he had his head tilted back to see around Akamaru's fluffy mass and a gentle smile on his friendly face. His thumb twitched slightly, then slowly began tracing circles across the top of her hand, leaving her nerves tingling slightly where he touched her. Though the rest of the car had not noticed that she was glum, it had not escaped Naruto's attention after all. There was confusion swirling deep within his sky blue eyes. He did not know the cause of her sadness, yet was trying to comfort her regardless. Despite herself, she felt warmed, and squeezed his hand back with a shaky smile.

 _And yet… I cannot bring myself to let go._ Despite everything, she wanted to hang onto him, until the very moment she was forced to let go.

To try and bury her melancholy feelings, she leaned forward to gaze out of the window out into the slums, the home of the man who held her affections and the rugged landscape that held her wonder. As Kiba's car rumbled over the potholed streets, the cracked sidewalks streamed alongside, the sun-bleached stone only interrupted by flashes of green where bedraggled weeds sprouted from the crevices. Beyond the pathways lay the homesteads, modest constructions each bearing the charm of their owners. One was a pale brown with a small porch, complete with a porch swing, with small flowerbeds on either side of the steps. Another had a swing set with a small plastic slide, and children's toys strewn about the yard, a rubber ball and a skateboard and a jump rope. Yet another had a laundry line strung from their porch to the large tree in their yard, with freshly washed clothes waving in the wind. Yume felt that each home was a window into the family that lived there, yet so many questions remained still unanswered; there was something so deeply _personal_ about them that made her wonder who they were and what their lives were really like. It wasn't like the homes in the city, with identical brick mailboxes and pretty landscaping to out-compete the home across the street, where children could not leave their toys in the yard for fear it would ruin the grass and fences were erected because no one wanted to know their neighbors.

As she gazed upon the side of Konoha City that she admired so, she had to admit that she felt slightly better.

The homes gave way to businesses, corporate franchises mingling with quaint family-owned establishments. Among these was the small ramen shop that Naruto had taken her to on their first date, owned by the jovial old man- Ichiraku. Kiba parked in one of the available spots, and Yume was forced to relinquish her grip on her boyfriend's hand as she climbed out of the automobile. She could feel his bright blue eyes boring into her back, watching her guardedly as she walked alongside Hinata to enter the restaurant. She pretended not to notice. _If I keep acting like this, he'll suspect something._ Yume wasn't ready to fend off a confrontation. She glanced over her shoulder at him, pulling a falsely cheerful smile onto her face in the hopes that it would placate him.

It didn't seem to be effective, as he just narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

"Oh! This place is so cute!" Hinata exclaimed with delight as they walked inside. It was a bit more crowded than the last time Yume had paid a visit; a couple of old men were situated in the corner embroiled in an intense game of shogi while a young businessman in a faded, crumpled suit was shoveling noodles into his mouth as he typed away at an old laptop.

"Isn't it? And the food is good, too," Yume nodded as she walked over to a table. The others would likely be along shortly, so they pulled together several of the tables to make enough room and settled in to decide what they wanted. "Naruto took me here for our first date," she told her friend with a smile toward the young boxer as he sat down beside her. Instead of responding with some happy exclamation or outburst as usual, he just nodded slightly while his lips twitched into some poor excuse for a smile. Yume's eyebrows knitted together in concern. _It doesn't matter what I do now. He already suspects something._ It was clear that he was brooding on her strange behavior. Her smile faltered as he flashed her a look of suspicion and concern, and she hastily buried her face into the menu, unable to face up to his questioning. _What am I going to do now?_

"Of course he did. Naruto practically _lives_ here," Kiba snorted as he tied Akamaru's leash to his chair. "His blood must be ramen broth by now."

"Well, he'd better not stop living here, because he keeps me in business!" the old man joked as he walked up to the table, wiping his hands with a frayed towel. "I see you brought along the whole crew this time!" he smirked as the rest of their party came strolling through the door. "Which one of you lot won this time?"

"My team, obviously," Sasuke snorted with a smirk as he pulled out a chair so Sarada could clamber up onto it, sitting on her hands and knees as she slapped her palms against the wooden surface.

"Nuh-uh! _My_ team won!" Naruto accused hotly and jumped out of his chair while pointing a finger firmly into the other man's chest.

"I thought we decided on a tie?" Hinata squeaked meekly as she hunkered down into her chair in case her statement incurred the wrath of the rivals. They were to busy arguing back and forth to even notice the girl had spoken.

"I see nothing's changed," the ramen shop owner sighed and shook his head. "Still at each other's throats. Well, hello. I don't believe I've met you," the old man added with a kind smile to Hinata, his eye crinkling around the edges as his lips curled upward. "Are you one of Yume's friends?"

"Yes. I'm her roommate, Hinata."

"Well, then. Lovely to meet you, young lady." After another few minutes of friendly chatter with the old man, the group of young adults placed their respective orders and he hurried off to the kitchen to begin preparing their meals. With the idle conversation over, the focus naturally shifted to Yume; Naruto's friends, so delighted at the fact that he had finally landed himself a significant other and one from the wealthier side of the city to boot, were immensely curious. Rather than eager to answer their questions, Yume erected her shields against the bombardment. _I can't reveal too much._

"So, Yume, how long have you wanted to be a singer?" Sakura asked as she leaned back in her chair, reaching up to gently touch Sasuke's fingers as he casually slid an arm around her shoulders. It was an innocent enough question.

"I've wanted to sing since I was very small. I realized very early how powerful music could be, and I wanted to use my voice to help people, to change people," she answered. She recalled the days she would spend in front of her parents' radio, eyes wide with awe as the voices drifted through the speaker to fill the room with its magic- that is, until her mother would storm into the room and switch it off, claiming she had better uses for her time. Her mouth twitched with displeasure and she hurriedly pushed the vision of her thunderous expression aside. "It's just always been a dream of mine," she added with a weak smile.

"Ah, the dream of stardom," Ino sighed dreamily. "It takes us all, at one time or another."

"Ino is an actress," Sai clarified.

"That's right, and one of these days, I'm gonna star in a blockbuster hit and the _whole world_ is gonna know my name, ya hear?" she cried and slammed her fist on the table with such force that her drink cup jumped into the air. Had it not been for Sai and his quick reflexes, snatching it out of the air to set it securely back down, it likely would had spilled everywhere. Ino, her face flushed as visions of flashing cameras and screaming fans and red carpets danced before her pale blue eyes, was completely oblivious.

"You tell 'em, Ino! Cha!" Sakura laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, pipe down, will ya? You're rude," Shikamaru complained and earned himself a pair of seething glares from the two girls. He seemed unperturbed by the obvious venom and glanced back at Yume. "Your singing career hasn't taken off yet though, has it? Naruto mentioned that you've had to work a lot of hours and take up more jobs at the bar." Alarm bells began wailing in her head, but she tried to seem unbothered. _I can't make it obvious._

"Well, I've only been here for a short amount of time. It takes a while for some people to be discovered. I just have to be patient and make do!" As she brushed off Shikamaru's comment, she involuntarily looked at the uncharacteristically quiet blonde boy; he was balancing the seat on two legs, his hands behind his head as he gazed intently up at the ceiling. As she watched him, though, she noticed his gaze would occasionally flicker to herself, and doubt would flood into the sky blue pools of his eyes.

"Surely your expenses can't be that much, though, unless you have some sort of de-"

"I'm doing quite fine, thank you!" she interrupted him hastily, slamming her drink down on the table as she lowered it from her mouth. Her fingers trembled slightly as they curled around the plastic glass slick with condensation. _I need to change the topic; this conversation is getting dangerous!_ She panicked internally. Naruto was staring hard at her now, and she could practically see the questions burning on his tongue.

"What do your parents think about you singing, anyway? It certainly isn't the most stable occupation," Sasuke asked with mild interest as he swirled his straw around in his drink, making the ice clink against the glass-like plastic. Yume's heart rate shot into light-speed and her lungs formed a vacuum, sucking all the air into oblivion. Her mouth opened and closed, but no words came out; the memories that she had kept locked tight in her mind banged against the door, snatches of recollections managing to wriggle through the gap to plague her feeble heart. The day in elementary school that her mother caught her in one of her fancy shirts and her high heels pretending to be a pop star, and slapping her so fiercely she had bruising for two weeks. The day in middle school that her father discovered her CD collection and promptly split every single one of them in two while Yume screamed and cried. The day in high school that Yume had been set to perform at the school's talent show, but her parents prevented her from doing so. The day that she had discovered they had cancelled the supposedly secret applications to the nearby musical colleges. The day they had found her hidden guitar and her father smashed it, and the day she had sprained her ankle jumping from the second-floor window to carry the splintered remains to the nearby music shop and beg them to repair it.

As the tears flooded into her eyes, her cell phone began to ring, and though she knew exactly who it must be she would rather take the call than continue to face the interrogation.

"I need to take this," she whispered as she stood unsteadily and stumbled away from the table and out of the restaurant, the old man looking quizzically at her as he carried their food over. The door swing wildly behind her as she staggered out into the sidewalk, the pop music blaring from her phone seeming more loud than usual. It made her already swirling head pound, and she answered the call if only to silence that resounding song. "Hello?" she asked wearily as she raised the phone to her ear.

"Yume. This childish game of yours is _over._ You need to stop being selfish and consider the consequences of your actions. You are to come home this in-"

"Goodbye, Father," she muttered and ended the call, then blocked the number. She had changed her phone number numerous times, but yet somehow her parents always managed to find her sooner or later; somehow, they had not yet discovered where she resided, but she knew that wouldn't last long, either. She and Hinata had changed apartments three times in the last year to escape notice, shelling out exuberant amounts of money for broken leases all so that Yume could live out her dream in relative peace. With a heavy sigh, she flopped back against the brick wall of the little ramen shop, allowing the tears to flow freely down her cheeks.

She wasn't really living out her dream though, was she? She was in debt to a mobster, her parents were closing in on her, and not one talent scout had expressed any interest in her. "Maybe I should just give up," she moped quietly.

"No, Yume!" She gasped in shock as Naruto suddenly appeared in front of her and grabbed her firmly by the shoulders, shaking her slightly. "You can't stop singing! You can't give up your dream!" She was stunned in to silence by his sudden appearance and did not respond, only stared up at him with wide eyes and her mouth parted. He exhaled deeply and relaxed his grip on her shoulders, raising a hand to sweep his knuckles across her cheeks to catch her still-falling tears. "Yume… I don't know what's happening… But please don't be sad." Her bottom lip wobbled as she hung her head, and despite his efforts to still her tears they continued to stream down her face to pool against his hands, roughened by many hours in the gym. Somehow they were still comforting.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. I'm just… I'm just not ready to share yet," she admitted. "I'm afraid." _He really is too good for me,_ she was reminded again. She had slighted him by closing her heart off to him, but yet here he was, only concerned for _her_ well-being. What would he think now, knowing that she refused to divulge anything to him? Surely he would be frustrated and angry-

"That's okay." His hand slid beneath her chin to gently tilt up her face so that their eyes met, hers like the sea and his like the sky. He no longer had that doubting, suspicious expression, but one of genuine care and reassurance. "Yume, you don't have to feel pressured to tell anyone anything, especially me. It's okay if you move a little slower than I do. You can take as long as you need to, and whenever you're finally ready, I'll listen." He smiled brightly at her, and she felt his hand twitch against her cheek; then, after a moment's hesitation, he gently raised his hand to sweep it through her raven strands of hair.

 _He really is too good… but, I want that kind of good in my miserable life._

"Thank you, Naruto," she whispered. In her moment of vulnerability, she allowed herself to take refuge in his presence, allowed herself to open the bottle of feelings she had stored inside herself. "Just… Just let me…" she begged as the rivers spilled over the dams of her eyelids again, and wordlessly Naruto wrapped his arms around her to pull her to his broad chest, holding her tenderly as he propped his chin on the top of her head and rubbed her back. She curled her fingers into the stained fabric of his jersey, closing her eyes as she cried quietly, her tears blending with the years of accrued dust and dirt. His scent filled her nostrils, cheap cologne mixed with the acrid smell of sweat, but she did not find it distasteful, but calming. Wrapped in his embrace, Yume felt safe for perhaps the very first time in her life.

Safe, if only for that fleeting moment.


	14. Chapter 13: Some Good Advice

" _I'm sorry, Naruto. I'm just… I'm just not ready to share yet."_

Yume's sing-song voice echoed in Naruto's mind as he stood in front of the cracked bathroom mirror, staring unseeing at his reflection. The previous day, when Yume been acting so strangely, he had pretended to be unbothered by it all; the truth was that he was quite bothered. He didn't care so much about what in particular she was hiding from him. He cared that whatever it was made her sad, and he didn't want to see her that way. He exhaled deeply as he began to dry his dripping wet hair with a towel. It had seen the washing machine too many times, frayed at the ends with all the fluff nearly gone, and thus didn't absorb the moisture like it was supposed to. Naruto wondered if Yume's towels were soft and fluffy and new, or like his. The idea of her being dirt-poor like him had entered his mind after her behavior yesterday, but he wasn't sure why she would want to hide that; if anything, it would make them understand each other better. With a groan of irritation that his brain couldn't riddle out the problem, he flung the wet towel into the nearby hamper and exited the bathroom.

Steam poured out of the small room, curling in white wisps before evaporating in the cool apartment. The cold linoleum embraced the soles of his feet with greedy fingers, and he scurried down the hallway to his bedroom and the welcome warmth of fuzzy carpet fibers. Like the towel and the bathroom, the apartment as a whole had seen better days; his room was painted blue, like his eyes, but the long years had faded it into this blue-grey mixture. Naruto covered most of the empty space with posters of his boxing idols- he even had one of Kakashi, before he had suffered his hand injury and been forced to retire. "The Copycat," they had called him, for his uncanny ability to copy an opponent's signature move after seeing it just once. He had one of Might Guy, too, Kakashi's greatest rival that they called the "Noble Blue Beast of Konoha" who was lightning-fast and delivered a deadly punch. He and Kakashi, in their prime, had competed for the Regional Championship slot every year, and were always evenly matched. Both of them had National titles under their belts, too, but had never managed to secure an International title. Naruto grinned to himself and fist-bumped the poster of his trainer.

"Don't worry, old man. I'll secure that title for you!" he chuckled before plopping down on his bed to pull socks onto his rapidly chilling feet. He wondered if one day children would have posters of him on their walls. It was an encouraging thought. _Maybe Yume will become a pop star and have posters too._ As his train of thought stopped in the station of the beautiful singer, his problem returned to the forefront of his mind. _Why won't she talk to me?_ He flopped back onto his bed to stare up at the popcorn ceiling, his normally smiling face distorted into a thoughtful and melancholy frown. He didn't want to push her. He knew that was the wrong thing to do, but dammit, he wanted to _know._ "Aaaaagh! This sucks!" he whined while rolling from side to side and covering his face in anguish. The bed frame creaked with every wild flail of his body. After a minute of thrashing, he flopped back against his bed like a limp fish. He wasn't smart when it came to women, and no matter how much he wracked his brain about it, he wasn't going to figure out what to do. He needed professional help.

Naruto dragged himself off his bed to shuffle back down the hallway, walking toward the back of the apartment where the other bedroom was. The door was ajar, and Naruto timidly poked his head in. Sakura was hunched over her desk muttering to herself as she stared at a book that was more highlighter ink than anything, while Sarada sat in the corner having tea-time with her dolls and teddy bears. It was only a two-bedroom apartment, so she stayed in her parents' room, but a lot of her toys and belongings had accumulated in the living room, kitchen, and even Naruto's room. He didn't really mind; he wasn't the peak of cleanliness himself, and whenever Sakura and Sasuke were busy, he loved to entertain the little girl.

Naruto stared uncomfortably at Sakura's back. Sakura was in nursing school, one year away from graduating with her Bachelor's degree, and she was the epitome of a perfect student. Most of her classmates probably assumed that she was just naturally intelligent, and though this was certainly true, Sakura was no stranger to grueling hours of studying. Her midterms were rapidly approaching and thus she had been glued to the desk more often as of late, and this is why Naruto felt guilty about bothering her with some stupid girl problem. He knew that Sakura being in school caused a lot of strain financially, because she was unable to work and when she graduated, she and Sasuke would be slapped with four years' worth of student loan payments. It was important that she do brilliantly in school and perform well on her certification exam so she could get a job almost right out of college, so Sasuke didn't have to carry all the financial burden. _I should just try to figure it out myself…_

"Uncle Naruto! Come have a tea party with me!" The three-year-old's ecstatic request betrayed the young boxer's presence to the aspiring nurse. He gulped slightly as the woman straightened up to look at him over her shoulder, drawing her pastel-pink hair behind her ear. Naruto immediately thought that she looked absolutely terrible, with thick rings beneath her green eyes and her hair clearly unbrushed, knotted and kinked. He didn't doubt that after waking up Sarada and preparing breakfast she instantly began studying. He knew it was important, but was it so important she made herself look like that?

"What do you need, Naruto?" Her voice matched her harried appearance, low and weary. He wrung his hands nervously, debating whether to riddle out his situation himself or provide the tired woman a much-needed distraction. He opted for the latter.

"I just need someone to talk to," he answered as he stepped over the dolls and block strewn about the floor to approach her. "I don't want to bother you, but… I was hoping you could help me." To her credit, Sakura smiled sweetly and closed her textbook, whirling around in her squeaky desk chair while gesturing for him to sit down on the end of the bed. "Thanks, Sakura," he smiled to her gratefully as he sank down onto the mattress. _Whew! I thought she would get mad at me for bothering her._ Sarada, realizing that Naruto was not there to play with her and that they were about to engage in an adult conversation, gathered up her teddy bears to totter into the hallway, likely to ransack his room in passive-aggressive revenge. "Yume's acting funny. I don't know what I should do," he moped. Sakura gave him a sympathetic look as his shoulders slumped dejectedly.

"I won't lie, Naruto, it's obvious that there is something that Yume is hiding."

"What should I do?" he whined miserably. "I want to respect her space and everything, but if it's something I can help with, I would like to, ya know?" He flopped back on the bed dramatically. "I've never dated before. I don't know the 'do's' and 'don't's.'" He didn't want to go too much in detail about what had happened outside the restaurant, because he felt like that was betraying her somehow. Hopefully Sakura could still offer some good advice.

"She'll come to you eventually," Sakura mused and stood up to stand over him, hands-on-hips. "My guess is that she's afraid that her secret will scare you off, but it's big enough to affect you in some way. She feels conflicted about telling you or not, and is trying to keep everything as it is now." Naruto's eyebrows shot to the roots of his hair. He would have never arrived at that conclusion by himself.

"Wow, Sakura. That makes total sense." It did- the way she avoided looking at him, the fact she wouldn't tell him anything but still gravitated toward him. It even explained her behavior up until then, the dodgy "I'm going to ignore you but still want to date you" treatment he had received the last few weeks. "So, it's not that she isn't into me, but that she's so into me it scares her because of this big secret?"

"Bingo," Sakura nodded with a snap of her fingers. It was quite strange to think about. Naruto had never been terribly popular with the ladies, mostly because he was best friends with Sasuke and he was- loathe as he was to admit- a lady-killer. Even Shikamaru and Kiba had their fair share of groupies, but Shikamaru just didn't care and Kiba was as clueless about girls as he was and had never stuck with anybody. All the girls thought Naruto was handsome, but as soon as they had a conversation they would run off and tell their friends about what an idiot he was. He had never really let it get to him, probably because becoming a championship boxer was more important than getting a girlfriend- until he met Yume, that is. He had fallen in love with her at first sight. All it took was her angelic voice- not even her good looks, that was all secondary. That _voice,_ though, that voice that poured the holy elixir of the gods- that was what did it. Naruto had never dreamed that he would even be _looked at_ by someone like her, and here he was dating her; he was a little selfish, and didn't want anything to ruin it, not even Yume herself. Thus, the idea of her feeling so strongly about him that she didn't want to lose him made him feel stupidly giddy and dismally sad at the same time.

He was sad because that meant Yume was probably suffering a lot more than he realized.

"So… I just need to wait for her to come to me?"

"Exactly. You can't push a girl into revealing something she isn't ready to," Sakura agreed. Naruto frowned slightly as he pulled himself into a sitting position. He knew that Sakura's advice was best, but the impatient person that he was didn't want to wait. He didn't want to see Yume sad any longer. "I know you want to help her, Naruto, but if you try and force her, you'll only end up pushing her away."

"I know, it's just hard." He hunched over to put his cheeks in his hands as he brooded. There was nothing for it; he would have to wait until Yume was ready, just like he had told her. He must have looked pretty depressed, because the woman smiled gently and patted him on his head like she did to Sarada all the time.

"Trust me, Naruto. It'll work out." He couldn't help but smile back. Sakura was a spitfire, and could be moody as hell especially when she was stressed, and it was the moments like these where he really appreciated her friendship. After all, he couldn't really go to any of the guys about such a sensitive issue.

As she turned to walk back to her desk, Naruto watched her, and narrowed his eyebrows.

"Hey, Sakura… You're looking pretty thin, ya know?" He knew immediately that he had crossed a line as she slammed her hand down on the desk and glared at him, her cheeks flaring as pink as her hair. "Hey, hey, I'm sorry! I'm just worried, ya know? You work yourself so hard all the time!" he cried as he waved his hands about wildly. He expected her to snap at him and come bonk him on the head, but instead she deflated like a balloon, sinking down into the chair and looking more dejected than he had a moment ago. The tension in his body relaxed, and he stood up to walk over to her. "Sakura?"

"Sasuke didn't get as many shifts this month, so money is kind of tight. I… probably haven't been eating as much as I should," she admitted quietly after glancing at the door to ensure her daughter wasn't around. "Don't tell Sasuke! He's under so much pressure, and he never gets to spend time with Sarada," she insisted when he knitted his eyebrows together. It was true; Sasuke was trying to get promoted to the homicide division, which required him to stand out and put in a lot of hours. It was a big sacrifice for him, and Naruto knew it was because he wanted to support Sakura and Sarada the best he could. _But still…_

"Sakura, you can't do that." He squatted down to where they were eye-to-eye, and she guiltily stared out the bottom-right corners of her eyes, her bottom lip poking out slightly. "I ain't gonna tell Sasuke, but you gotta promise me you won't do that anymore," he told her firmly. She heaved a sigh, but obediently turned her gaze to him and nodded. "Good. Now, get ready," he huffed and slapped his hands against his thighs as he stood up.

"What? Why?"

"We're going to lunch, that's why," he answered matter-of-factly and walked to the bedroom door to poke his head out. "Hey, Sarada, want to go get chicken nuggets?" The squeal of pure delight that bounced down the hall from his room was all the affirmation he needed, and he looked at Sakura with a malicious grin.

"Shame on you, using my child against me like that," she snorted, but she was smiling gently, her green eyes swimming with gratitude.

"It's the least I can do for your good advice," he grinned at her with a thumbs-up before he ducked out of the room to trot down the hall to his own. Sarada was on his bed, having piled the sheets and pillows into fort. Her little head popped out of a small gap, her baby-fine hairs sticking up in all directions and her face flushed from whatever exhilarating game she had been playing with the stuffed animals. "Hey, whatcha playin', princess and dragon?" he mused as he walked over to pluck her from the bedsheets.

"Yeah! Save me, Uncle Naruto!" she squealed and hugged him tightly. Naruto dramatically delivered a left jab to the stuffed toy dragon on his bed, knocking it to the floor. She cheered in elation and wrapped her arms around his neck. "You're so strong!"

"Believe it!" he snickered and set her down to walk over to his closet and pick out some clothes. He had never realized he had been walking around the house in only a pair of pajama pants the entire time. Sarada gathered up her toys, then looked at him thoughtfully. "Is Miss Yume still sad?" He tensed up as he was pulling his shirt over his head. He didn't know. She probably was, but again, there was nothing he could do about it. With a rueful smile, he pulled the shirt over his head and walked over to ruffle her hair.

"I think so, but it's okay. I'm gonna try and make her feel better."

"That's good. She's so pretty and nice. I don't want her to be sad," the little girl frowned.

"Me neither. Now go get dressed, or no nuggets!" The little girl screamed and hastily took off, dropping stuffed animals as she went. He snorted in laughter before returning to his closet.

 _Me neither…_

 _Yume, I'll wait until you're ready. Whenever that is, I promise, it won't scare me away._


	15. Chapter 14: I'm Here for You

Yume exhaled deeply for the thousandth time as she forlornly stirred a spoon around and around the rim of her cup of jasmine tea; it had long since cooled, so there was no point in drinking it, but she had been doing so for nearly half and hour now and she had no care to stop. Though she and Naruto had sort of made up yesterday after her emotional breakdown, the problem still remained that her parents were dangerously close to locating her and wrenching her away from her dreams for once and for all. Worse than that, she was no closer to achieving her dream of becoming a star singer than she was when she first started working in Tsunade's bar. Then, she was indebted to Obito the ruthless mobster who was a loose cannon. Finally, though Naruto had expressed that he would wait until Yume was ready to divulge everything to him, she was still deeply worried that once she did so he would decide that her baggage was not worth it and she would lose the only really good thing in her life at the moment- and that was, amazingly, the most terrifying thing of all. Thus, upon waking up this morning she was more acutely aware than normal that her life was nothing more than a steaming pile of shit and it had needless to say left her a little blue. With a depressed sigh, she shoved the useless beverage aside and stretched out across the round kitchen table.

"Yume? Are you okay?" at the sound of Hinata's hesitant, soft voice, Yume turned her head to the side, pausing to puff her hair our of her face before answering.

"I'm stressed," she moped. There was no point in her lying; it was quite obvious and despite Hinata's non-confrontational nature their friendship was strong enough for her to promptly call Yume out on her B.S. With a concerned frown, Hinata grabbed another kitchen chair to pull it around the table to sit beside Yume, who just continued to slouch across the furniture in a blob of human misery. Hinata didn't inquire as to what exactly was stressing Yume; Hinata was the one person on Earth who knew the gravity of the peril that Yume was in, and the fact that she remained by her side anyway really spoke volumes about not only Hinata's nature but the depth of their friendship. Yume felt a little eased as Hinata reached up to gently place a reassuring hand on her back.

When Yume had turned up at Hinata's door after tracking her down through social media, sobbing and begging for a place to hide, the girl had opened up her humble home to her without hesitation. She helped her find the singing job at Tsunade's bar. When Yume found out what a scoundrel Obito really was, rather than kicking her out to spare collateral wrath from the mobster she had vowed to help Yume keep up with her bills, which Yume had asked her for several times. To Yume, Hinata's kindness was one of a kind, and she was eternally grateful for remaining by her side; but she was immensely guilty, too, for putting Hinata through so much trouble when she herself was struggling to kick-start and writing career and constantly had to put it on hold for Yume's sake. Yume knew, deep down, that she had upended the girl's life and continuing to cling to Hinata was just taking advantage of her selfish nature.

How could she consider dragging another person down into the abyss with her, especially when she had not even made amends to the person that she had dragged down first? Upon realizing what a sickeningly ugly person she was, Yume recoiled from her friend's touch and slid out of the chair to stand up with a muted, "Sorry, Hinata. I feel better now." She couldn't do it anymore. She couldn't take the guilt of abusing Hinata, and now Naruto, any longer. She needed to do what she always did when a problem became too much to bear; she needed to run away. She could flee everything, _everyone_ , start all over someplace new. "I'm going to my room to work on some lyrics."

"You're lying," she accused immediately. There it was; that confrontational nature that only Yume ever saw. The singer, knowing that it was a lecture that she much deserved, hovered at the edge of the kitchen table while absently tracing her fingertip across the wood grain. Her mouth twitched tears stung the corners of her eyes, and she released a shaky breath as it felt like the weight of the world fell on her shoulders; she slumped against the kitchen table as she broke inside, unable to keep her own weight up anymore. "Yume!" Hinata jumped up to grab her by the shoulders as she fell unsteadily to the floor, guiding her down so that she could sit on her legs and cry miserably. The moment of fear and panic passed, leaving Yume with only more crushing guilt. How could she even consider just abandoning Hinata, after all she had done, and leaving her with the consequences of Yume's selfishness and stupidity? Hinata kneeled down in front of the crying woman with an expression of deep concern, gently holding her shoulders. "Yume? What's wrong? Please tell me. I can help you." The words sickened the already sickened Yume.

"That's just it, Hinata. You've helped me too much. I've taken advantage of you, and I'm _s-s-so s-s-sorry-_ " As she spit out the apology, her voice broke and the sobs wracking her body made it harder to speak and even breathe. Yume thought that voicing her regret to the girl would make her feel better, but it just made her afraid; what would Hinata do now? Would she incite her anger, bitter feelings that she had been holding inside for so long, and after letting everything out kick Yume to the curb? It was no less than she deserved-

"Oh, Yume," Hinata sighed, interrupting the panicked stream of the singer's thoughts, and leaned forward to wrap her in a tight hug, resting her head against hers. "I have never, _not once_ , thought of you as taking advantage of me."

"B-but I cause you so much trouble; I'm such a _burden_ ," Yume sputtered indignantly. Hinata must be lying, Yume knew; there was no way that she wasn't bitter about it, resentful of Yume and her shitty life, she _must_ be lying-

Hinata chuckled and hugged Yume tighter, and the girl was shocked to feel tears landing in her raven hair and against her neck.

"No, never, Yume. Please don't _ever_ think that you're a burden to me," Hinata insisted firmly, and when she pulled back to stare Yume square in the eyes, her light blue eyes were filled with tears as well as an intense fire. "I'm your best friend, and that means that it's my job to help you when you need it, Yume- whether it's a little _or_ a lot. Besides, I'm just as much trouble as you are!" she told her with narrowed eyes. Yume was about to quip that she was definitely laying it on too thick, but Hinata began speaking again quickly, probably knowing that Yume was going to continue with her pessimistic remarks. "My writing career isn't really taking off like I want it to, and you're there to support me through that, Yume. I forget to eat all the time, and who is it that brings me food, even in the middle of the night?" That was true. Yume did that a lot, because Hinata was notorious for going eight or ten hours without eating because she'll work so hard. But that alone didn't make up for- "It's at least once a week that I go crying to you because I don't think I can make it." That was also true; Hinata had pretty low self-esteem, and so Yume often needed to reconstruct her ego a little bit. But that- "I make a lot less than you and you work extra so that we can both afford our bills. I _know_ you sneak money into my money jar." _Damn, she knew about that?_ Yume had thought that she had been pretty sly on that.

"That's only because… I feel like I owe it to you…" Yume mumbled pathetically, but her woeful shell was beginning to crumble under Hinata's onslaught. It wasn't just that. Yume loved Hinata and wanted her to succeed, even more than Yume wanted to succeed herself. Hinata's writing was beautiful, and like Yume, she had abandoned her family and their expectations to chase her own dream… So, when Hinata was stressed about money, Yume snuck some of her wages into the jar so that Hinata wouldn't have to worry. That was a lot of the reason she ended up in trouble with Obito for being short oftentimes. Pouting, Yume slouched her shoulders as Hinata poked her firmly in the forehead.

"You don't owe me a thing. We're in this together, and that means that we have to take care of each other, okay?" Hinata smiled sweetly, less in a lecturing mood now that she realized that she was getting through to Yume, and tilted her head to the side slightly. "I know that Naruto will feel that way, too." A blush blazed across Yume's cheeks and she scrunched her body up, trying to make herself feel small as she was so unabashedly called out.

"… Is it that obvious?"

"Well, if you feel that way about me, it's really common sense to figure that you feel guilty about the way that Naruto treats you, too, and how you feel about him finding out about everything." Yume hung her head with a heavy sigh, but a smile was appearing on her lips. Hinata really could see right through her in a way that no one else could.

"I just don't want to drag anyone else into my problems, Hinata, especially not him… He's so sweet and cares so much, but he has his own to deal with. I just can't help but be afraid that he won't want to deal with mine since they're such monumental screw-ups."

"You _do_ have some pretty big ones," the girl admitted with a slight chuckle. Yume looked up at her, admittedly hopeful that she would contradict her. "Really, though, Naruto just seems like the kind of guy to embrace everybody's problems like it's nothing… He cares a lot about you, and I know he wants to see you happy, so I think he'll do everything he can to help you rather than pushing you away." Before Yume could reply that the last thing that she wanted was help, people having to get themselves involved in things she had screwed up herself, Hinata leaned forward and cut in, "And it's okay to ask for help, Yume. You don't have to do everything alone."

Yume blinked at her, because it really was an alien concept to her. Yume had _always_ been alone. Her parents had never embraced her or shown her any affection. Her achievements were her own, because they weren't achievements in their eyes. Her sorrows and joys could never be shared because they weren't interested and would accuse her of making mistakes. The one time someone showed interest in her, and she thought that maybe there would be someone who could appreciate her and her passions, her parents had run them off because they weren't high enough on the social scale. Yume had never been herself to them, just a tool for politicking and climbing the social ladder. No one had ever cared about what she loved, what she wanted, what she _needed._ Yume had to break away so that she could find those things herself. She didn't need anybody, she couldn't need anybody, because there was always the chance that they would reject her for it.

That is, until Hinata… Until Naruto.

With a sniff, Yume slumped against her friend, weakly raising shaky arms to embrace her back. Yume was close to Hinata, but in this moment she felt the closest to her she had ever been; it was like Hinata had punched through her shell of fear and misery to forcefully yank her out into the open to fully embrace her and all that Yume was- both the good and the bad. As Yume cried softly into her shoulder, so deeply grateful to her that she couldn't put it into words, Hinata gently stroked her hair. "I'm always here for you, Yume."

"Mhmm-hmm. Me too," she responded quietly through continuous muffled sniffles. She didn't say it aloud, but she made a promise then to really take Hinata's words to heart. _I won't be afraid anymore. If I'm afraid, then they win- my parents, Obito, everyone who always said I couldn't do it. I'm gonna keep moving forward, without fear. I won't take on everything myself because I_ _ **do**_ _have people willing to help me, because they care._

 _I finally have a_ _ **family**_ _._

Once Yume finished her crying spell (and profusely thanked Hinata until the girl once again grew confrontational and warned Yume that she was already slipping back into her anxious tendencies) they decided to go out to Yume's favorite ice cream joint down the street and have some sundaes. It was the first time that Yume felt like they really had a "girl's night"; they talked about all kinds of random things, reminisced about things that happened in high school and since they had moved to the city, their career prospects, and of course, the depth of Yume's feelings for Naruto. As they strolled back to the apartment, giggling and all-smiles, Yume felt lighter than she ever had, even lighter than that first dizzying date with the blonde-haired boxer- light, and _unburdened_. She and Hinata made fast plans to confront her issues, setting an appointment with their cell phone provider to change her number, constructing a better budgeting plan so that Yume would be able to make her payments to Obito, and rearranging her work schedule with Tsunade so that Yume would have more days to sing and work on her original works. Yume wasn't as nearly ready to broach her problems to Naruto about it, but at least she felt a little less afraid about it.

Later that night, when Hinata had retreated to her room to work on her own things, Yume was sprawled on her belly scribbling random phrases on some spare notebook paper to try and get the creative juices that had recently dried up to flow. She glanced up as her phone chimed and she pulled it to herself, flipping open the text message from Naruto.

 _ **Hey, Yume, are ya free tomorrow? Also, how was your day?**_

Yume grinned to herself as she rolled onto her back, already typing a reply and ignoring the papers crinkling beneath her.

 _ **Sure am! My day was really good. Hinata and I had some much-needed girl time.**_

 _ **Aw, man! I wasn't invited?**_

 _ **Haha, it wouldn't really be "girl time" if you were there, silly!**_

… _**Oh, that's a good point.**_

Yume shook her head with a soft smile at the boy's air-headedness, and momentarily laid the phone against her chest while waiting for his reply while gazing up at the ceiling. Now that she was clear-headed about things, she realized that their chemistry was completely natural; nothing felt forced with him, and she found it engaging and fun to talk about even mundane things like her day. She lifted the phone eagerly as her message tone dinged again.

It wouldn't be today, but she would lay it all bare to Naruto soon. It was what he deserved of her, and what she deserved for herself.


	16. Chapter 15: Don't Ever Change

"Dammit, dammit, _dammit_!" Naruto puffed out the curse words between ragged gasps of breath as he careened down the hallway into his bedroom, skittering on his hands and feet like a dog trying to run across freshly waxed tile. His shoulder slammed against the doorframe as he half-slid, half-ran into it, but he could barely feel the dull ache in the probably bruising muscle; his mind was in overdrive, concentrated on his acute stupidity. "How could I have spent my date money on those _goddamn_ chicken nuggets? I just _had_ to be a fat-ass and get forty of 'em!" he ranted aloud as he finally ceased shambling about on all fours to snatch his froggy bank off his dresser and disembowel it by pulling out the plastic plug. He spilled its coin guts across his unmade bed and was disappointed to find that they consisted mostly of pennies, and not nearly enough to make a substantial date out of. He didn't bother returning them to the poor ceramic frog; he just dropped it on the bed and zoomed to his closet to yank every dirty pair of pants from his clothes bin and rifle through the pockets. He only retrieved a crumpled gum wrapper and a token for the arcade he often took Sarada to. He waded through the mess of discarded jeans and gym shorts, ransacking every drawer he passed with no avail. As a last-ditch effort, he jerked up his mattress to see if the springs hid any hidden gems; the pennies rained down into his golden hair before diving into the sea of denim eclipsing his floor. "Damn! Nothing!" he whined, slamming the mattress back down onto the frame.

"Naruto? What are you looking for?" His crazed search for pocket change had attracted Sakura from her study; she was standing in the doorframe with her hand on her hips and her pink eyebrows knitted together like yarn. Naruto's shoulders hunched up to his ears as he was caught in a compromising situation. _Crap! If I tell the truth, Sakura'll give me money, and she ain't gonna let me refuse! She's been starving herself to pay the bills; there's no way I can let her do that!_

"Ehehe, I lost my card to get into the gym. Kakashi will be mad at me if I lose it again," he lied with a nervous chuckle, rubbing his neck as he looked over his shoulder at her and tried to seem inconspicuous. Sakura's eyebrow crept up her forehead, and he could see the doubt pooling in her sea-green eyes; thankfully, she did not want to get involved in whatever Naruto was doing, and so dismissively waved her hand as she turned on her heel.

"Whatever. Just keep it down a bit, wouldja?"

"Sure thing, Sakura!" When the bedroom door shut behind her, he blew the nervous steam he had been holding inside the whirring gears of his head out of his nose, then sank down onto the edge of the bed like a deflated hot air balloon. "There's only one thing I can do, I guess," he moped quietly to himself as he retrieved his phone from his relatively undisturbed bedside table and pulled up his girlfriend's contact information. She seemed to have been in a better mood of late, and so it pained him even more to have to call their date off because he was a broke loser. His fingers hovered over the keyboard while they riddled out what they wanted to say. He couldn't just _tell_ her he didn't have the money. Sure, she would suggest they do something that doesn't cost anything, and it wasn't like Naruto was opposed to that; he just didn't want Yume to know he was _that_ broke. The last thing that he wanted was pity. He knew that she wouldn't break up with him over something like that, but the idea of her feeling sorry for him was almost a worse alternative. Unable to bring himself to admit his fault, he threw the phone aside and rolled onto his belly on the bed, his feet hanging down with his face buried into the sheets that smelled of dollar-store detergent. Naruto didn't want _anybody_ involved in his money problems, least of all Yume; more than that, he just wanted to shower her in the affection and gifts she deserved, and it was just so painful that Naruto had to resign himself to cheap dinners and free schemes.

 _I can't cancel, though, because then Yume will be sad._

"All right, loser, up and at 'em. Time to get your brain moving," he muttered and pushed himself up off the bed, rolling back into a sitting position. He crossed his legs underneath himself and held his chin, eyes scrunched up, as he willed the machinery in his head to turn and produce a coherent thought. Naruto had never been great at the _thinking._ He was a man of instinct, of reaction, of "leap before you look." Thinking was a waste of time in his eyes; why considering innumerable possibilities when you could just try something and see if it works? That mindset combined with his limited attention span had given him grief growing up; it had taken everything he had to graduate high school. It wasn't that he was stupid, or at least he didn't think he was- he just thought there was more to life that books and tests. However, sitting there while his mind overheated with the strain, he wished he had cultured that part of him just a tad bit better. "I have no ideaaaaaaas," came the wheedling whine as he melted off the bed and into the pile of dirty clothes and discarded pennies. He soon got out of that mess because his gym clothes produced an aroma that was none too pleasant.

"What to do, what to do?" he mumbled under his breath as he strolled out of his bedroom and down the hall to the living room. As his socks transitioned from the wood-patterned linoleum in the hall to the darker shade of fake wood in the living room, he was surprised, but only mildly, to see Ino curled up on their couch, wrapped from head-to-toe in one of their frayed blankets while she dejectedly emptied an ice cream carton of its contents and stared dejectedly at the flickering television screen. Ino and Sakura were great friends, even if their bold, stubborn personalities led them to butt heads every once in a while, and so it wasn't unusual that Naruto found that she had just suddenly appeared in their apartment like a mushroom that had suddenly grown up in the yard. Whenever she looked like this, though, moping on the couch instead of chatting it up with Sakura, it meant one thing and one thing only.

"You get rejected for a part again?" he asked as he walked onto the carpet that marked the boundary of the small living space. Ino retreated into her fortress of cloth like a turtle into its shell, and her blue eyes beamed like headlights from within the dark shadows of her face. All he got in response was a muffled groan. "I guess that'll be a 'yes,'" he sighed as Ino pulled the edge of the blanket down over her face, the hem just over her nose. "When'd you get here?" Naruto had been in the apartment all morning and had heard no commotion (wherever she went, there was one), so he was wondering if she had arrived last night, after Naruto had collapsed into his bed after an exhausting day of training. "Last night?"

"Mm-hmm. Sakura picked me up from the bar…" Before the ice cream sulk-session, Ino would seek comfort in fruity drinks with lots of alcohol, ever the lady even when drowning her sorrows with the stuff. It didn't happen often, usually only when Ino was denied major roles, but enough for Naruto to know exactly what had happened without her telling.

"You didn't tell Sai, did you?"

"Of course not. He has way too much to worry about trying to get featured into a gallery. I don't need to burden him with my problems!" she snapped at him, then shoved another spoonful of chocolate ice cream into her mouth. "I just told him I was going to Sakura's for a girl's night…" she mumbled with the creamy concoction leaking out of her lips. Naruto grimaced slightly, but was admittedly relieved that he wasn't the only one with relationship problems; even his married friends had them now and then. He hovered at the edge of the carpet that had been stained with spilled beers from their raucous teenage years and more recently with the various food and drink Sarada brought in during playtime. Meanwhile, Ino's despondent eyes once more drifted to the television screen. Naruto's squirrely brain soon lapsed from trying to find a way to comfort the woman to the words drifting out of the television's speakers, and he too cast his gaze upon the screen; a cheesy romance movie was playing. They were Ino's favorites, even after she had successfully found her "happily ever after." "Look at her," Ino muttered as the leading lady appeared on screen, looking beautiful even as she dramatically cried over her lover who was dramatically walking away in the rain. "I want that to be me someday…"

"Come on, Ino, that's never be you."

"What the hell does that mean, asshole?!" she shrieked and threw her spoon at him. Naruto yelped as the cold metal utensil smacked him in the forehead, splattering chocolate ice cream across his face and into his hair. He whined miserably at the dull ache now permeating through his forehead, which only served to also make him aware of the ache in his shoulder. He then looked at her with a pouty expression.

"Jeez, Ino, I just meant that you're better than cheesy television chick flicks, okay? You're destined for the big screen, believe it! Don't sell yourself short 'cuz it's hard." As he grumbled while trying to wipe the liquified milk product off his head, Ino's pale blue eyes widened and her lips, always shining with gloss, parted slightly in mild awe. The portrait of joy then painted across her face, and she stood up, allowing the blanket to fall from her shoulders, to walk over and bend down to pick the spoon up off the floor. Naruto looked down at her quizzically as she straightened back up and lightly tapped the rounded back of the spoon against his forehead, right where she had beamed him moments ago.

"You really know how to make a girl feel good, Naruto. Yume's a lucky girl," she mused quietly. Naruto blinked before flashy her one of his big, toothy smiles.

"Hehe, I think I'm the lucky one, really."

"Naruto, don't you ever change," she laughed while replacing the lid to the ice cream carton and walking to the kitchen to return the half-eaten stuff to the freezer and then throw the spoon in the dishwasher.

"You leaving?" he asked in bewilderment as she folded up the blanket and swung her purse over her shoulder. Though she had been there all night, usually her brooding lasted deep into the evening, sometimes even multiple nights; she would just camp out there on the couch until suddenly, like the sun spearing through the rainy clouds to return light to the weary world, her mood would shift and she would bounce out like nothing had happened.

"Yep. I feel better thanks to you," she quipped before striding to the door. It was unusual, but Naruto was at least glad that she felt better. As Ino swung the door open, they were both startled by a very puzzled Sai with his hand raised mid-knock; he then gave his wife a serene smile.

"I was just coming to get you."

"Aw, you're so sweet, honey," his wife crooned as she danced across the threshold to give him a hug and a quick peck on the lips. As she tossed her head to look over her shoulder and throw him a wink, her bleach-blonde hair whipped about her. "See you later, Naruto! You have a date with Yume tonight, right? Good luck!" she giggled with a little wave of her fingers before entwining them with her husband's, immediately turning to him to animatedly ask him about his day. Sai, her complete polar opposite, calmly responded, and Naruto heard his quiet words fading as they descended the apartment steps together. Naruto walked to the door, leaning out over the second-floor railing to watch with a small smile as the two of them set off down the sidewalk, Ino hung on Sai's arm with her attention captured by his simple demeanor; all traces of depression were gone from her, and she practically radiated joy now that she was in the hands of the man she loved. Naruto breathed out as he watched them, leaning his cheek in his hand while wondering if he and Yume would ever be so naturally a couple. Naruto's clueless nature was still bungling things, and he knew that he and Yume weren't nearly in tune like that.

"Someday," he whispered to himself hopefully. The blaring of the television caught his attention again, and he hopped back into the threshold of the doorway, holding onto the frame while leaning at an angle to watch with interest at the overripe drama unfolding on the rounded screen. Somehow in the span of ten minutes, the couple had made up and were picnicking in the park while watching the sunset. Suddenly the gears in Naruto's head exploded into action, finally whirring their worth, and a bright grin plastered on his face as a light bulb was produced. " _I just had the best idea ever!_ " he snickered.

An hour later, he was sprawled on his belly beside Yume, who was sitting with her legs primly tucked underneath her, ever the picture of grace. They were on one of the spare blankets Naruto had procured from the hallway closet, one of soft, plush fabric with a simple plaid pattern; it was spread out over the grass of a hill near his apartment, overlooking the sprawl of houses and roads he called home. The blue sky above was rapidly becoming tainted with reds and oranges and yellows as the burning sun began its descent below the horizon. He was currently shoving the last half of a ham sandwich that Sarada had very animatedly helped him make; he had already managed to fit six in his impressive gullet. Yume laughed as he shoved the entire thing in his mouth with much zest, enjoying hers much more daintily.

"You really do have an impressive appetite, Naruto!"

"I gotta!" he grunted before pausing to pick the sticky bread from his teeth. "I gotta take in a lotta calories so I don't fall out during training, believe it!" He rifled through the backpack of food he had brought with them, disappointed to find that he had polished off the last of the stock. He contented himself with a soda instead, popping the tab and sipping off the fizz that bubbled out before turning his clear blue eyes on the beautiful songstress beside him. "So, how're your songs coming, Yume?"

"Not as well as I would like," she admitted with a soft sigh. Her hand dropped to her lap, still holding her half-eaten half of ham sandwich; her sea-blue eyes burned with droplets of gold as they caught the light from the disappearing sun, burning with sadness. "It seems that I've lost my touch." It wasn't altogether surprising; there had been a period when Yume had pretty much done nothing but work, which didn't leave time for fostering creative thoughts. Naruto sipped thoughtfully at the aluminum can and rolled onto his side, swirling the soda around as he continued to gaze up at her. He was suddenly reminded of Ino, curled on the couch in her depressive cloak, only able to think of what she wasn't able to do.

"That's okay. You just gotta get it back again! You can do it, Yume; I know you can!" he told her confidently and sat up, though with a little too much vigor; the fizzy soda splashed down his front, turning his blue muscle tank an ugly brown-grey. "Awe, shit!" he whined as he tugged on it, not very pleased with the sticky feeling of the carbonated syrup against his skin. Yume giggled, holding her hand to her mouth like she always did.

"Don't ever change, Naruto." That hadn't been what he was expecting, and he looked up at her in slight confusion. Ino had uttered those same words to him. The smile she was wearing was the happiest he had even seen her bear, so pronounced that her eyes scrunched up a bit and her cheeks flushed with a rosy hue. He smiled bashfully as he downed what little liquid remained in the can, then crushed it in his fists and tossed it into the open backpack.

"'Course not, why would I? It's _this_ me you like, right?" he smirked while sitting up and crossing his legs underneath him.

"Hehe, that's true." Naruto grinned widely and did his normal nervous gesture, rubbing the underneath of his nose with his index finger; while his eyes were closed, he felt Yume shift, and he thought she was just adjusting herself on the blanket.

That is, until he felt her head settled onto his shoulder.

His eyes snapped open to find that she had scooched closer to him, their sides nearly touching, and laid her head on him. Her cascade of dark hair draped over his shoulder and back like a soft curtain. He watched as her empty hand twitched, then crept up over his leg to slip into his hand and entwine their fingers. Naruto's heart beat like a furious boxer against his rib cage, throwing jabs and hooks of such force he through it might crack them, but even though he had begun to sweat slightly he managed to keep his cool. He gulped slightly as he turned his chin upward some, honestly not quite sure what to do but overwhelmingly excited at the development. He decided to just do what Yume was doing and watch the sun blend with the horizon. The dying rays sought solace in the bright gold of Naruto's hair, but even those too lost their brilliance as the night swallowed the day.

 _Don't ever change either, Yume._


End file.
